Masked Rider Wizard 2: The Primordial Mage
by BladeofHope1991
Summary: Travis Edge has left his friends behind after his fight with Dark Wizard. Now a new Mage has shown up using the power of the animals to protect Bowling Green, and has ties to Travis's past. The Phantoms have grown stronger and the imminent threat they intend to bring draws ever closer, and a war will be waged against the Phantoms and Wizard and the new Mage Beast.
1. Enter Beast

(Shawn's Viewpoint)

It has been about a month since then. One month ago my friend Travis Edge, known as Masked Rider Wizard, and two unknown allies by the name of Casey Morrison and Ashley Morrison fought side by side to take down Travis's dark despair known as Dark Wizard. Prior to the fight Travis was abducted by his ex-girlfriend Amber Wild who we later came to know to be as Medusa, a Phantom that Travis fights. Travis was taken to an abandoned factory and was beaten to an inch of his life and then Dark Wizard dealt him the killing blow. Miraculously, Travis was just hanging on by a very thin thread and Casey was able to show up and bring him back to life. The fight against Dark Wizard was brutal as Travis didn't have enough in him to fight against his dark side.

During the fight a woman by the name of Rachel who helps run the Grounds for Thought coffee bookstore in town was pulled into the fight and was knocking on death's door before she had a chance to realize anything that was going on around her. She still is in the hospital to this day but is doing better. When my friend came home after the fight he as well as our new friends passed out and began to rest up. Travis was out cold for two whole days and then one night when we went to go check up on him in his room, he was gone. He left a note for us saying that he needed time from everything and it left us feeling empty. It wasn't just Travis that left either without a goodbye, Manuela had vanished as well but had told Karina that she still felt guilty for what she had done and left before the fight with Dark Wizard ended. The first couple of weeks were hard because nobody heard from Travis nor have seen him.

Casey and Ashley had tried to look for him but couldn't find him at all. Then the two new friends said something about leaving and going back to their home and in just a few short hours we learned that Casey came from a different timeline and knew that we probably would never see him again. He told us that we should give Travis space and time. He just somehow knew that he would return back to us. I had hoped that he would.

During the second week and shortly after Casey left, I started to pick up on making rings with DJ. I wanted to contribute to the fight against the Phantoms and when Travis returned, I wanted to give him new rings that would help fight against our enemies that threatened humanity. Robin started working a lot harder at her job and Karina would pray hoping that her bro would return safely. We all knew that Travis wasn't far because Karina still needed to be refilled with mana twice a week. DJ mentioned a time when he talked to Travis about coming back but that didn't seem to sway him. There would be times when Karina would just burst into tears as she worried about him wondering if he will ever be the same Travis that we all knew and loved.

Over the course of the five months we knew him, we had a photo album of us all having a good time and whenever we missed him, we would look at that album. We had this guy come over right at the end of the second week going on about how he wanted to see Travis but when we said we haven't seen him in two weeks he would look sad and leave. During the third week we were under a tornado alert and the winds began to pick up heavily and it caused some of the rocks to fly through the windows and break them. There was some damage to DJ's house and the next day after the storm, me and DJ began working on the repairs. The same guy who was looking for Travis came back around and helped us repair the house and was pretty good with his hands as he helped get a project that would takes days to finish in ten hours. We invited him into the house and he quickly became a friend of ours but wouldn't tell us his real name. He wanted us to call him Beast. He didn't reveal much about who he was but me and him got along very nicely because of our energetic and hyper personalities. Beast liked being a troll and everyone quickly warmed up to him. With him around, we were able to get ourselves out of the muck we were in missing Travis and looked forward to the day he would return.

-Present Time-

-August 9th, 2014-

I had gotten to DJ's early as I was trying to learn how to finish up on this new set of rings with DJ. I had walked through the front door and when I did I saw DJ with a glass of orange juice. He was wearing blue jeans and black boots, a white and red striped shirt with his light grey jacket on him. He had gotten his haircut that he had been wanting for a while so his tinted brown hair was extremely short it almost looked black due to the lighting. "Well good morning sir. You ready to finish up these two rings?" He asked me. I had a huge smile on my face.

"Yes I am boss! How are you doing this morning Karina?" I said to my friend at the counter. I looked over to my latina friend with short black hair. She was wearing a maroon long sleeve shirt and when she stood up and walked to hug me, had these blue jeans with some bling on the pockets. She had this happy expression on her face that she always had and then put a smile on her face.

"I'm doing great Shawn. Hey want to do another round at King's Buffet again? Or have you learned that I got a dark hole in my stomach and you can't beat me?" She said laughing. I knew this girl so well I thought she could eat an entire elephant and still go on about how she is hungry. What's weird is it never showed on her body. Probably because her metabolism was really high. I declined her offer as I put my hand over my stomach.

"I don't think I can, I'm still feeling it since last Friday." I said joking. I then walked past her and up to the little secluded room in the right side corner of DJ's living room. Once I went in there was two rings that were shaped into a circular pattern. DJ handed me a ring case and guided me through the process of putting the ring in. I then took some sandpaper and started scraping the magical stone down until it was flat and then I grabbed a ring face plate and snapped it into place on the ring. The blue ring had a picture of a dragon with its head raised up and lines coming out of its mouth as if it was speaking.

The next ring I made was made out of an orange material and when I finally put it all together I saw a dragon wearing a tie. "This one is kind of funny to look at." I said chuckling. Suddenly a knock was made on the door and then I watched as Beast came inside. "Oh hey Beast how are you doing today?" I said as I walked out to greet him. We ran up to each other and bear hugged the other.

Beast was wearing this red vest today and a shirt with an abstract picture of a lion. He was also wearing blue jeans and had this giant blue bag on his back that he walks everywhere with. He had white skin and blue eyes, also had freckles around his eyes. He stood about 5'11 so right up there with Travis, and his blonde hair was spiked a bit towards the back. His hairstyle was weird and we have openly asked about having to spike his hair up instead of sideways so it would look better. But he was against it saying this is the hairstyle he was more comfortable with but it really made him stand out. "I'm doing okay. How's the house holding up with the repairs?" He asked. I told him it was coming along fine and then Karina left the room to go grab something. When she came back down she had a small grocery bag in her hands and handed it to Beast.

"This is a thank you for helping us over the past week. All of us chipped in to buy it." Karina said holding out the bag. Beast reached out to grab the bag and then slowly pulled out what was inside. Inside was a silver bracelet that had the symbol that you can see when Travis's cast his spells. The symbol was colored bright red, "If you flip over the bracelet there is your name written in black." Karina said. Beast had this look on his face that was surprised and he started putting the bracelet on his left wrist.

"I...I don't know what to say. No one has ever given me something like this before. I guess I say thank you. Thank you so much guys." Beast said with a tender smile on his face. For the rest of the day Beast hung out with us and even spent the night, but instead of staying inside the house he set up his tent and other stuff that he carried on his back in the yard. We tried to persuade him to come inside but he would always tell us this, "I want to be outside where nature thrives. I feel calm and relaxed being outside than I do inside." We all stopped persuading him after that. He did mention at one point how he lost his parents when he was a child to the very things Travis fights against.

Beast mentioned how he met a guy who travels and became a good friend of his as the guy looked after him over the years. He taught Beast everything he needed to know on living with nature. He even mentioned before he parted ways with his friend that he gave him his camping gear that he has now. He even mentioned how the guy taught him how to fight against wild animals in case he ever needed to protect himself.

That night went by like any other it was quiet and there had not been any Phantom sightings or Ghoul sightings in a while. I know that night Beast was complaining about how he was really hungry even though he smashed through five hot dogs. We all wondered when Travis would come back home as we flipped through the albums of the time we all spent together. I remember I stayed up late that night while everyone went to sleep. I would watch anime in the living room and was watching this thing called JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It was really good and watching the JoJo's fight to keep evil at bay was something I whole heartedly looked up to. "I wonder if I keep making these rings will I be able to be just like them." Suddenly I heard some noise at the front door, it sounded like growling.

I began to feel fear grow inside me but I knew that I would have to stay strong for everyone. I slowly walked over to the Wizard Chest that held Travis's rings and grabbed the Defend Ring. I took my Engage Ring Travis gave me off and slid the Defend one on. I then grabbed one of the box cutter knives from DJ's office where we make rings and then slowly walked up to the front door and extended the blade out.

"If I have learned anything from being Travis's sidekick it's the fact that you look at danger straight in the face and not run away from it. While Travis is gone I will protect everyone's hope." I said under my breath as I slowly opened the front door and when I did I didn't see anyone there. I then slowly walked outside and kept the box cutter up at my chest getting ready to stab it at anything that would jump out at me. "Who's out here?! I heard you and I know you are out here somewhere! Show yourself!" I said as I slowly stepped out in the darkness. I was looking all over the place but couldn't find the source of the growling. Then I heard a familiar voice.

"Uuhh Shawn is that you? Shawn help me, I'm injured!" The voice sounded like Travis and he sounded like he was in a lot of pain. I knew that the voice was a few feet away from the house and I quickly ran to see my friend and once I got to where the voice was coming from I called out for my friend.

"TRAVIS! I'm here! Where are you?! Travis!" I said as I looked around to see no one around me on the road.

"Shawn…Help me…" I heard Travis say. I turned around to see the cornfield and I quickly ran up to it and pulled back the cornfield but to my horror I didn't find Travis, I found a dead body ripped in half and I quickly felt a huge chill run down my spine. I heard a growl coming up behind me and I slowly turned around to see a skeleton like face with fur around the neck and blood dripping down from its mouth. It had these antler's sticking out of it forehead which looked like deer antlers. I then looked down to see that it had white fur all over it's body. It had these rusty yellow claws, it's entire upper body was pretty much gone as you can see what looked like it's bones, and it's entire legs were covered in a thick white fur with small rusty yellow nails sticking out like knives. I knew it was a Phantom but something about it looked a bit different than the normal ones we have a fought.

The creature then opened its mouth, "Shawn….Help me…Please!" The thing said using Travis's voice. After hearing this I screamed at the top of my lungs as I dropped the box cutter and the Phantom smacked me to the side as I went flying out of the cornfield and rolled on the ground until I was next to the road. I quickly began running away and thought that I needed to warn Beast. I quickly ran as fast as I could toward his tent and when I got there and began unzipping it, the Phantom grabbed me and threw me across the yard until my back hit up against a tree. I fell to the ground having a hard time getting up and then the Phantom came over, he grabbed me and pinned me to the tree. I then heard him speak in his normal voice which was a cracky sound and when it did, some blood was starting to flow out of its mouth.

"Where is the Ring Bearing Magician? He harmed my mistress and I will see to it that he dies by my claws." He said with that rotten breath. I told him that no one has seen him in about a month but that only got me to get the Phantom to stab me with his claws in my shoulder.

"GYAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed in pain.

"Anyone who can't tell me where to find the Ring Bearing Magician will be devoured regardless if you are a Gate or not. I'm not your normal Phantom, I am one of the strongest Phantoms and a few have been slained by the Ring Bearing Magician. Arachne, Cait Sith, and Hellhound were killed by him and I will end his life. Until that happens maybe if I kill a few people I might be able to draw him out into the open. If you value your life you will tell me where. HE. IS!" The Phantom said to me. I told him that I didn't know and I watched as he raised his right arm back, "Then you will be my next meal." He said but right when he raised his arm back he then dropped his arm and I saw something white covering his entire face. Me and the Phantom looked up into the tree to see Beast spraying mayonnaise from a bottle on the creature's face.

Beast then dropped down from the tree and slammed his entire body weight onto the creature causing it to fall on its back. Beast then took out a plastic knife and started rubbing it all over the mayo that was on the monster's face. "Got to make sure I prep you correctly. Oh boy this is going to taste so fricking good!" He said with a smile on his face like he was having the time of his life. The Phantom raised his claws to swipe at him but Beast just lifted his arms up in the air and grabbed the wrists, "Now now I don't want to have to fight for my food. Just stay here as I prepare this midnight snack like a good Phantom." He said keeping his happy expression.

The Phantom then power struggled his way out of Beast's grasp and flung him to the side. I watched as Beast rolled over on the ground and then got back up. When he did I watched him pull out a ring from his red vest. "I guess it's time to do this huh?" He said as he slid what looked like a ring with an grey door on his right hand. He then put the ring over a belt that had the same grey door.

 **"** **Driver On!"**

The voice from his belt sounded a lot clearer and determination than Travis's belt. I then watched Beast take out a ring that was square with a weird look on the ring that just screamed the face of a lion. He slid that on his left hand and then shot his hand up in the air, "I'll make this fight as quick as possible. Travis isn't the only Ring Bearing Magician around here." Beast said with a smile on his face. He then took his left hand and brought it around in a circle until his left hand was in front of his stomach and his right hand did a parallel version of what his left was doing. He then took both of his hands and stretched them out to right side, "TRANSFORM!" He said as he then quickly stood up straight and put the lion face ring into the weird handle.

 **"** **SET! OPEN! L-I-O-N! LION!"**

I watched as Beast pelvic thrust and out shot a yellow spell circle from his belt and it slowly made its way through his body. From head to toe Beast had this lion like mask, his under armor was black. His right shoulder had a black plate on it with a gold sheet under it, his chest had this gold plate armor on it with a lion's face mantle on his left shoulder. He had arm braces that extended from his wrists to his elbows, white gloves with his rings on them, his waist had his belt that was opened with the inside of the doors having animal pictures engraved on them with a face of a lion in the middle of the belt. Beast had two gold lines running down his legs that attached to more armor for his legs.

"I'm looking forward to eating you!" Beast said as he put his hand over his belt and a sword handle popped out and he pulled out some saber with a dice above the hilt. He ran towards the Phantom and began slashing it all over the place and caused the monster to step back on every slash. He then threw the blade up in the air as he landed some quick jabs at the monster and then grabbed the sword and made a slash from one side of his body to the other. He then lifted his foot and kicked the monster away from him. The monster fell backwards and then got back up.

"You think that you can beat me? The Wendigo Phantom? I will admit that you got some lucky strikes in but that won't stop me! Let's see how well you can handle my speed Animal Mage!" Wendigo said as he got up and then quickly vanished. Beast came over to me and took out a ring from his ring holder. It looked like a green chameleon and he slid it on his left finger and then put it into his belt.

 **"** **GO! Chameleo! C-C-C-Chameleo!"**

Beast quickly released his ring as a green spell circle appeared over his right side and he stuck his hand out as the spell circle moved onto his arm and showed a face of a bright green chameleon with its tongue sticking out. It wasn't just that, there was a small cape hanging off his right shoulder and I watched as the tongue started moving around. "I want you to get on the ground Shawn. I don't want to hit you." He commanded. I quickly got on the ground on my knees as the tongue started moving around in a giant circle and then it wrapped itself around the Wendigo Phantom.

"What the hell is this?! I can't move my arms or legs!" He said pissed. Wendigo was standing right behind me and Beast then turned around.

"I knew you would try and kill Shawn to make me distracted at my friend's death, but I'm not your common prey. I actually have more intelligence than you monsters." Beast said. He then pulled Wendigo towards him and slashed at his chest as he untied him. Then I watched as Beast raised both his hands up and then put them both into the handles of his belt.

 **"** **Chameleo Mix! C-C-C-Chameleo!**

"It's time to feast!" Beast said. I watched as his sword began glowing bright green and when he ran towards Wendigo who was just getting up, Beast vanished causing Wendigo to look around for his opponent. But in a quick second I saw Beast appear behind him with his growing green blade and slashed right through him and then Beast grabbed me and got me out of the danger zone as Wendigo fell to the ground screaming in pain and then exploded. A gold spell circle appeared over the explosion and moved its way toward Beast where it went inside his belt which made a gulping sound. Beast then closed the gates on his belt and reverted back to his human form. He had this big smile on his face as he rubbed his stomach. "That's right Shawn, Travis isn't the only Mage in this town." He said with a bright smile on his face.


	2. Dr Welsh

(Travis's Viewpoint)

-August 13th, 2014-

It was almost midnight and the hospital was closed out to visitors. But it was never closed to me. I came to this hospital multiple times during the day and night to see Rachel. For some reason after it being over a month she still hasn't recovered and her situation keeps going on and off. I got to the base of the hospital and pulled out a ring from my pocket as I activated my belt.

 **"** **Hurricane, please. Air! Air! Air! Air!"**

A green spell circle moved over me as I commanded the air to guide me up to her window and I floated inside. I then reverted back to my human self. I was carrying a book bag and placed it down next to me as I sat in the chair that was located next to Rachel's bed. The giant white room had some furniture, a TV, and some monitors that were attached to Rachel to let people know how she is doing. I opened the bag next to me and pulled out some marigolds which were Rachel's favorite flowers and placed them on her chest sideways.

"I should've been stronger and quicker to end that fight. I didn't think that you would get involved so easily. I don't understand why you haven't gotten any better, the bullet was taken out and your body has healed up without any major damages. So why have you not woken up yet?" I said to her moving my hand down the side of her face. I felt so powerless and in a lot of emotional pain as I stared at someone who was like a second mother to me lying in this bed. "If Casey was here I'm sure he would have found a way to wake you up. With all of my powers I have nothing that can save you." I said again with tears running down my face. I reached out and grabbed her hand as I lifted it up and squeezed it.

"Don't…Cry…." I heard Rachel mumble. Even in the state that she is in she still cared about me. It was just too hard not to cry. I then heard the door open as a man walked in and turned on the light. The man then sighed before he spoke to me.

"Again Travis? I don't know how much I have to tell you that she'll be okay. I'm the best doctor this state has ever seen so you can go home and rest easy. I don't even know how you got in here to begin with, but you should know that if you are caught you can get charged for Criminal Trespassing right?" The head doctor of the building said. His name was Dr. Viktor Welsh. He was six foot two, white skin, blue eyes, blonde hair that he slit back when he comes to work, wears blue jeans and black shoes with the traditional white garb that all of the doctors wore. He had a silver wristwatch on his left hand. He had a voice that really masculine sounding as well, it made the office ladies swoon all the time. For the past two weeks he knew that somehow I'd sneak into the hospital and stay by Rachel's side always checking up on her and bringing her fresh flowers.

"I'm sorry, I know that what I'm doing is wrong but she's the closest thing to a family that I have. I can't help but be worried about her." I said to him. Welsh walked over and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Have you a home? You could really use a shower." He said to me.

"Not at the current moment. For the past month I've kind of been living outside. I just haven't had the energy of being around people right now. I've been through quite a lot and I have a lot going on inside my head right now that I think it's better to avoid people for a while." I said in a low tone.

"Look Travis, why don't you go into that bathroom and get freshened up. I have some clothes you can borrow and I'll wash those for you. How about this, if you help out around the hospital I'll let you stay here for a bit. How's that sound? You worry so much about Rachel how about staying here for a while. I can set up a room for you here and you can pay off your rent as it were by working for me." Dr. Welsh suggested. I ended up taking him on his offer; think that it might be better than sleeping in a tree. After I was done taking a shower I put on these blue jeans and I watched as my black hand belt transition over to the new jeans I was wearing.

"I love how this thing will stay with me no matter what pair of pants I wear." I thought. I heard the door open and I looked over to see Dr. Welsh walk in. He took me to his office and ran by a list of things I'll be doing for him. He gave me a clipboard with a list of patient's names that I'll be cleaning their rooms when they get discharged. I was looking through the list and saw a familiar name that was located in the next door over from Rachel. "Manuela is here?" I thought as I saw her name. I looked over at Dr. Welsh, "How long has Manuela Urbieta been here?" I asked him worried. He had told me that she had been here for two days. She was attacked near the bars and was brought in with bruises all over her body. She had been asleep since her admittance and hasn't woken up. "Can I go see her real quick?" I asked him. I watched him lift his hand up in the air giving me the okay as I walked out into the hall and began running down them looking for her room. I had to go down another level of the building when I found her room and when I got up to the room I grabbed the handle but didn't turn it.

I was hesitant about opening the door, "What am I doing?" I thought to myself. I then ignored my confused emotions and opened the door as I walked inside. The room was just like the one Rachel was in; the lights were off and Manuela lay on her side facing the window where the moonlight beamed through the windows. I walked and sat next to her bed. "What is she doing here? I thought she was staying at DJ's, so how come she's here?" I then remembered that I needed to give Karina my mana and I ran out the hospital after notifying Dr. Welsh where I was going.

While I was driving to DJ's my mind wouldn't stop thinking about Manuela and her condition she is in. I had gotten to the intersection of Wooster and Main which is in the downtown area. A few people were out and about drinking and going to the bars. I had stopped at a red light as I overheard a couple of people talking and what they said infuriated me. "Did you see that chick the other night? She was fucking hot; I don't know why she didn't want to have a fun night with me I'm one of the top fraternities at the college? Sucks I had to beat her down before she could run her mouth to the cops Hahahaha." This guy was clearly drunk and then I saw him pull out a wallet that was pink and had a heart on the flap. "The girl is fucking loaded though. She had about five hundred dollars in this thing when I took it off of her. This Manuela chick sounds like she is an illegal. I hope she gets her ass deported! That'll teach her to not turn down some free pleasure." I had heard enough as I got off my bike and parked it on the side of the road and walked straight up to this guy and his three friends. I reached out and quickly snatched the wallet from him. He and his friends quickly looked over at me.

They all wore blue jeans, had BGSU shirts on them, all three tall white males, one had blonde hair which was the one talking trash and the other two had black hair, one was neatly combed back while the other was all curly. "You are going to want to give that back before I open a can of ass whooping on you boy." The blonde hair guy said. I put the wallet in my back pocket.

"You are most certainly welcome to try you frat piece of shit." I said with anger in my eyes. The curly hair guy on my right went to punch me but I moved my upper body back and then grabbed his arm and spun him around. I then took my leg out and he tripped while spinning onto the ground. His combed back hair friend went to try and uppercut me but I spun around him and then got in his face, "Let me show you how to uppercut." I said to him as I took my right hand and connected it hard with his jaw. I could see blood flowing from his mouth as he brought his head down to look at me. I then raised my right fist and punched him straight in his left eye causing him to fall over. The blonde hair guy ran at me and starting sending a barrage of fists that I just dodged left and right to. He then got close to my face and right before he punched me in the face I kicked him in the groan and he kneeled over, "I'll show you what a barrage of punches should look and feel like and then when I'm done you won't be using lil fratty anymore. Anyone who does shit like you to someone who is underage doesn't deserve to feel pleasure." I said to him. I then punched him across his face with both my hands, on my last punch I raised his face up with a palm of my hand and sucker punched him at the jaw line. He then fell up against one of the businesses with his back up against the glass and blood running from his nose and mouth.

"Pwease! Stahp! I vhad enough! I'm sowwy! Just pwease stahp!" He said incoherently. I then walked up to him with nothing but anger in my eyes.

"I'm sure this girl you tried to screw said the same thing." I said to him really sternly. I then raised my right foot and stomped on his crotch area as he screamed in pain. While he and his friend were sprawled on the ground I took out a ring and scanned it.

 **"** **Light, please."**

I then casted the light towards them blinding them and the entire block as I rode back off to DJ's place. "People like that sicken the hell out of me." I said under my breath as I tried to calm down on my way to my actual destination. It didn't take long for me to get where I needed to be. I walked up to the front door of DJ's place and took out the key in my pocket and unlocked the front door. I slowly walked inside and closed the doors. I looked around the dark room to see that nobody was here. I walked up the steps in the middle of the room and walked towards the hallway. Once I entered the hallway and on the right were steps to the second floor. I walked up them slowly trying to not make any noise. I then approached a white door with a piece of paper that said "Karina's Room" and I grabbed the knob and turned it. "I know that to wake Karina I only have to turn on the lights otherwise she is a heavy sleeper to noise." I thought to myself. I walked over to her bedside and grabbed her hand with the Please Ring and placed at my belt.

 **"** **Please, please."**

My orange mana then flowed out from my body and into her. I gave her more mana than normal which would allow her to last for an entire week. I felt a bit weak doing so but thanks to the Dragon Style Rings and the Drago-Timer I now have access to more mana than ever before. I put Karina's hand back on her chest and gave her this stuffed animal I had bought some time ago for her. It was a stuffed unicorn plushie and I wrote Karina's name on its side. I turned around to walk out of the room and I heard Karina speak. "Uh…Travis…I miss you…Where did you go?" She said in her sleep. I stopped when she said those words and I looked over my shoulder to her.

"I'm still here." I said whispering.

"I want you to come home…" Karina said more in her sleep. I then slowly closed the door and walked downstairs. Once I got downstairs I saw a person standing over the Wizard Chest that held my rings. I had a hard time seeing the person because of how dark the room was and I took this to my advantage. I slowly walked up to him; the person had picked up one of my rings. I then wrapped my right arm around his throat and put him in a headlock and at the same time I did this I had grabbed the hand that held onto my ring and brought it to his back and then lifted his hand until it was up over his shoulder.

"You got about five seconds before I break this arm to tell me what you are doing here." I said to the guy. The guy was moaning in pain but took this advantage to walk backwards until he got me to the steps causing us to fall backwards. The guy took this time to push off of me and I hopped onto my feet as I grab him by his collar and when I pulled him back, he grabbed my arm and rushed backwards to me. When he did he bent down and took his other arm and wrapped it under my leg and flipped me over his body and slamming me on my back. He then laid on the ground and wrapped his legs around my throat and grabbed one of my arms and put me in an arm lock. He then pulled my arm while choking me. I then heard him say something.

"This ring? TRAVIS?!" He said. I was writhing in pain from my arm and then the pain was gone as the person released me from the lock. We both got up as I tried to guess who this guy was. Once we all stood up the guy ran up and hugged me as he started sounding like he was about to cry. "I've been wondering when you would return. I've been looking everywhere for you for the past month. It's great to see you again!" The guy that was just about to break my arm had quickly turned into this energetic like child who had too much candy. I broke him free from me and pushed him away from me.

"I'm sorry but I don't know who the hell you are. First you break into this house and then try to break my arm off? Plus now you somehow know me?! Who are you?" I asked him so confused as to what was going on. The guy turned on one of the lamps in the room and I got a better look at his face. He didn't look like anyone I knew.

"You don't remember me? I thought we were going to be best friends forever? You can't tell me that you forgot all about me?" He said confused. I didn't know who he was and turned around and walked over to the door and opened it.

"You need to get out. If you do I won't harm you or force you out but you need to leave now and never come back here." I instructed the guy. He walked up and shut the door and took out a necklace from his pocket.

"You see this? You gave this to me on my 7th birthday. It was a friendship necklace your parents bought for us. It was a two piece set you hold the one that says Best and I have the one that says Friends." This guy told me. I immediately remembered giving one to my friend Mark Boger and that only infuriated me. I quickly grabbed his throat and slammed him up against the wall next to the door.

"Look I don't know who you think are or why you think this is funny, but I'm warning you right now that the person I gave that necklace too died by MY hands. He went to the hospital and my parents told me that he died from his head injury. Shortly after hearing that we packed and moved out of the west end and straight to Bowling Green to start a new life. So don't sit here and tell me that you are Mark Boger because that is impossible." I said with a threatening tone.

"Is that what my parent's told yours? It makes sense now. But I need you to believe me that I am speaking the truth. I didn't die I was just knocked out for a couple days. I was never dead and this isn't a joke I'm being 100% honest here. I survived; also think about it if I was really dead you would've been taken away from your family. Just think about this before you make another mistake." This guy said to me pleading.

"Another mistake?" I thought. This guy was not making any damn sense. "Why the hell are you here? How do you know about this place?" I asked him.

"I stopped by to help out with the damages here during the tornado alert some time ago. I got to become friends with everyone here and they have allowed me to stay. I've been staying out back for the past few days." He said. I released my grip on him as things just weren't making any damn sense.

"Fine." I said as I let him go and walked out the door. Before I did I heard this guy say something to me.

"Is that it? You're just going to walk out again? Leave everyone here to their daily routine which is nothing but worrying the hell about you and wondering if you are ever going to return? This isn't the Travis I knew! You cared about people at one point! You did so that you would gladly give up your own life if it meant to put smiles on over a hundred people's faces! Now your just some damaged person looking for a reason to keep on living! Stop pushing your friends away! Stop running away from everyone that is trying to help you! Everyone here is worried sick about you and I haven't spent the past 9 years looking for you to find a person who is so damaged that he can't even stand on his own two feet anymore! Where is the real Travis Edge that everyone knows and loves?! What happened to him huh?!" The guy said as I walked on my bike and put my helmet on and drove off into the night.

His words were ringing inside my head. I just don't know what was going on with my life right now. I was just as confused as to who I am as much as everyone else. "I can't keep running from this, somewhere soon I'm going to have to get over this." I thought as I zoomed down the streets and back to the hospital. Once I returned I went to show my badge to gain access to upstairs so I could sleep. But I had lost my badge, "Shit did I drop it when I was fighting that guy? Damn it what am I going to do?" I thought as the lady at the front desk told me that I couldn't go any farther without my ID and then I heard the phone ring. The lady picked it up and I could hear someone scream on the other end.

"THERE'S A MONSTER IN ROOM 209!" I heard from the other end. I quickly acted as I ran behind the later and pressed the button that allowed me access to the upper floors. The lady at the desk was yelling at me but I knew what the room was, It was Manuela's. I quickly got up to the door and busted through the door and when I got inside the room was completely empty.

"MANUELA! Where are you?! Manuela!" I yelled in the room and then I heard something from the bathroom that was its own closed space to my right. I walked over to the door and grabbed the handle and pushed open the door. When it opened up I saw Manuela collapsed on the floor, right before I walked inside I heard a chuckling from someone behind me. I slipped on my Driver On ring getting ready to fight and when I turned around I saw Dr. Welsh standing there. "Dr. Welsh I need you to get everyone to safety there is a monster running around and it might still be in the area." I said as a warning to him. But he just stood there. "Doctor?" I said.

I then heard something move on the floor and I looked down to see a black thin tail with a red heart at the end and it stabbed right into my back and I felt something being pumped into my body. The pain caused me to fall to the ground and when I looked up I could see Dr. Welsh holding Manuela in his hands and a woman who was standing right next to him. I knew this woman to be his wife Elizabeth Welsh. The black tail was connected to her back and in just a split second I watched as Dr. Welsh had a purple miasma surround him. He then transformed into a Phantom while holding Manuela's collapsed body in his arms. He had this black circular face with a red horn sticking out of his forehead. He had little bat wings on the backside of his head and red eyes in the circle of his face. The rest of his face was red and veiny like someone whose face was extremely burnt. His entire body was a tinted red and muscular like. He had red flaming hair and dirty yellow claws. He had these huge yellow veins that glowed all over his legs and feet. He had white fur surrounding his wrists. He had a red tail erupt out from behind him with a black heart. His chest had a shape of a black hurt that was shattering to pieces.

"Oh my you had to come back here so soon. I was just about to inject my special potion I made into Manuela. I didn't want you around to see this but I guess things just don't go our way does it?" He said. I watched as Elizabeth Welsh took out a 8oz bottle with some green liquid in it and placed it on Manuela's stomach. Dr. Welsh then used one hand to open the cork on the bottle off and placed it on Manuela's lips. The contents went into her mouth and once all of the liquid went down her throat I watched him raised his one hand while still maintaining her body in one arm so she didn't fall. He raised his hand over her face and I saw a black claw erupt out of the palm of his hand and injected it into her neck.

"NOOO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER!? LET! HER! GO! MANUELA WAKE UP! PLEASE YOU GOTTA GET UP! MANUE-AGGGGGHHH!" I screamed as I felt more of whatever Elizabeth was injecting into me start causing more pain. Then I watched as Dr. Welsh took his claw out and dropped Manuela's body onto the floor. The moment she hit the floor I watched as her eyes quickly snapped open and growing a bright green. She then slowly stood up and turned around to Dr. Welsh. She bent down on one knee and Welsh held out his hand. Manuela then licked one of his fingers and kissed his hand.

"What are your orders Master?" Manuela asked in a monotone like voice. At this point Elizabeth ripped her tail out of my body and whatever was going on that was keeping me in pain, just vanished. I quickly got up ready for a fight.

"I want you to know something Travis. I run this hospital, my goal is to find people's hopes and destroy them so I can give rise to more Phantoms for Master Wiseman. If the people aren't Gates than I the Incubus Phantom and my lovely wife the Succubus Phantom, are allowed to use them as pawns until our hearts content, and then when they have outlived their usefulness, we will kill them. Also anyone under our control gain some immense strength, Manuela dear why don't you show him for us please." Incubus said staring at Manuela as she turned around to face me with those bright green eyes.

"Of course Master." She said wickedly. I quickly tried to move out of the way but Manuela took one step and already had grabbed my neck and lifted me up off the ground by two inches. She was about to crush my windpipe but instead dropped my body and then did a jab into my gut slamming me into the wall behind me. I then fell to the ground and when I did I had her grab the back of my jacket, "Get up off your feet mongrel and FIGHT ME!" She said as she threw me up into the ceiling and when I came falling down she did a right side punch into my side and that sent me flying towards the window. Incubus was laughing hysterically and I watched as Manuela ran towards me with her right fist raised and the only thing I could do was lift my arms up to defend but instead of punching me she grabbed them and lifted me over her head. Once I was above her head she raised her leg and kicked the bed clear across the room and slammed me down onto the ground. I was on my back and started to lose consciousness.

"Finish him my dear, but don't kill him I need him alive." Incubus said. Manuela raised a fist and punched me in my diaphragm causing me to instantly pass out. I woke up a few hours later and saw myself strapped on a bed. My legs were strapped down very tightly and so were my wrists. I looked all over the place trying to find some way to get free. The room around me was white everything it almost felt like a stereotypical room at some mental hospital. I then saw a black door that seemed to be the only way in and out of this room. I also saw Incubus and Elizabeth Welsh walk inside. Incubus had a small vial in his hand and was still in his Phantom form. Elizabeth was still in her human form. She had long blonde hair, was the same height as me, pink fingernails, wore the same white outfit as all the other doctors, and wore these black dress pants and black high heels. She had her black tail wrapped around her waist and it was moving up and down.

"Open his mouth and keep it there." Incubus said. Elizabeth walked over and forced my mouth open. Incubus walked over to me, "Now this potion that I created has the ability to numb the body as well as cause the person to be unable to think properly. Think about being blacked out but still able to move freely. You will have this go into your system through the mouth and when you're done my partner here will give you a bit of her poison you can say so that you will be under our control just like Manuela is under mine. We are aware of your fight with Dark Wizard, and since he is not around we might as well use you. Soon you will be part of the Phantoms and will begin to destroy people's hope instead of saving it. Let's begin with the process." Incubus said as he uncorked the bottle.

I tried to fight it but was powerless to do anything. I kept struggling and moving all over the table but nothing I was doing was working and then the liquid went down my throat as I struggled to fight the potion internally and as soon as the last drop was in my mouth I felt my mind go completely blank and then I felt a sharp pain in my neck. Something was pouring into my blood stream and I quickly lost control of myself and the feeling to protect people turned into something more sinister.


	3. Breaking Free

(Mark's Viewpoint)

I had just watched Travis walk out after our little encounter and I know that I was upset. I grabbed my hair in anger, "Why can't he just listen!? I screamed. Tears were about to roll down my face but I noticed something on the ground that wasn't there before. I bent over and picked it up to see it's a hospital ID Badge. "He's working at the hospital in town?" I then stashed the ID Badge away and walked outside. I looked up into the sky with nothing but anger and sadness in heart, "What am I supposed to do now?" I said looking for some guidance. I looked back down to the ground and put my hands in my pockets until I realized something. I slowly pulled something out of my pocket and saw a photo on it. It was a photo of the both of us at my birthday party and Travis had signed it with a name that we both had when we would play this game. "Dragon…" I said aloud. I had forgotten that we would play this game where we were two super beings that each had a name. Travis's was Dragon and I went by the name Poison Dart. I then now knew what I needed to do and began running down the road to the hospital.

(Incubus Viewpoint)

I watched as Travis stopped struggling and then succumbed to Succubus's power. His eyes snapped open and were bright green. We unrestrained him and he got off the table and looked at Succubus, "What are your orders Mistress?" He said in a monotone voice. I walked up to him and handed him a picture of the woman named Rachel.

"I'm unable to find what her hope is, the one thing she truly holds onto. I want you to take your sword and kill her. If she can't cooperate with becoming a Phantom then we don't need her. Can you do this?" I said to him. He grabbed the photo out of my hand and began walking away from us.

"She is as good as dead." He said as he walked out of the room. I looked back at Succubus.

"Just how much influence did you put inside him? I didn't put much in Manuela, I only put in what I needed her to have in order to take down Travis without breaking out of my control. She passed out after she knocked him unconscious." I said.

"You know me, I like young men who have such strength and power. I gave him enough of my influence that unless I die he won't be breaking out of that spell. I'll report to Wiseman and tell him that Dark Wizard might've been slain, but we have the next best thing, the Ring Bearing Magician himself. There isn't any other person who can oppose us now; there aren't any other Masked Riders or other worldly beings that can stop him. The plus sides to be if his friends try to break him out of my spell he will instantly kill them on the spot. With this we now have the perfect killing weapon and Wiseman can now go on creating Phantoms without anyone stopping him." She laughed as she vanished into thin air in front of me. I looked back at the door as I started thinking of what I'll have Travis do after he kills Rachel.

"Once he's done with Rachel I'll send him back to his friends. That will be a fine reunion when he slaughters the very people who care about him." I said as I exited the room laughing evilly.

(Mark's Viewpoint)

I was running in the downtown area and finally came to a stop. I was breathing heavily as I had been running for about two miles from DJ's place nonstop. I sat up against a wall of this bar and grill restaurant called Jed's. "Ha…Ha….Ha…Oh my God I've run a lot farther than I'm used to. I don't even know where the hospital is around here. I just know it's near the downtown district. Plus it's 3 in the morning and everyone isn't out and about so I can't just ask someone. AH! Where do I go from here!" I said screaming. Suddenly I heard an ambulance coming down the street from in front of me. "If an ambulance is coming down from there then the hospital must be in that direction!" I finally had destination and then right before I took a step forward I saw a guy pull up next to me in this red car.

"Hey man you look lost. Do you need any help getting somewhere?" The man with brown hair asked rolling down his windows. I looked down at him.

"Uh yeah I need to get to the hospital. I have a friend who left his ID Badge and I need to get it to him before he goes back into work. Can you give me a ride?" I asked the guy.

"Ah heck yea get in man! I'm always willing to help people out!" The man said. I ran around his car and got in the passenger side. "Sorry my car is so messy. I'm not really a cleanliness kind of guy. The name's Stephen." The man said holding his hand out to me. I stuck out my hand and shook his.

"The name's Mark, AKA Beast. It's a little bit of a nickname I gave myself." I said shaking his white hand. Getting a better look at him I saw his giant beard and having this air about him that felt nice. He had brown eyes and wore a red flannel shirt with blue jeans. He looked like a redneck type of guy and had this southern accent as well.

He began driving down the street and once we got to the front of the hospital he pulled into the parking lot, "Okay this is your destination. Hope that everything will go well for you." He said to me. I reached in my pocket to grab something.

"I don't have much in the ways of money but let me give you one of my favorite bottles of mayonnaise." I said as I handed him a bottle.

"You don't really need to pay me. I had to go done this road anyways." He said surprised that I handed him a bottle. I had already gotten out of the car and looked back at him.

"Believe me it's really good mayo." I said as I clicked my tongue and snapped my fingers at him. I then ran towards the entrance as he drove away. I got up to the doors and found out that they had been locked. "That's weird, this is a hospital. So why are the front doors locked?" I thought to myself. I looked through the glass doors to see a security guard sitting at the information counter. I kept jumping up and down getting his attention. The guard put down his newspaper he was reading and slowly began walking towards the door. I started to notice that when the guard was walking closer I noticed that something about him seemed off. "There is something extremely fishy here. The door's being locked, the fact that there is a security guard at a counter that are near the doors that are locked, and the fact that I'm getting a bad vibe from this entire place in general. There is definitely something up about this place and I'm going to find out what is going on." I said to myself as the guard came up to the door.

"I'm sorry sir but we are closed. I'll have to ask you to come back later on the day." The guard said.

"Ah well you see I think I might have scabies and I need to really see a doctor to get my leg looked at. Are you sure I can't come—." I quickly dropped my sentenced and wrapped my entire arm around his throat and quickly cut off his oxygen causing him to pass out. I then carried his body to the counter and placed him on the chair and positioned him to look like he fell asleep at his desk. I then ran to the elevators and headed to the emergency rooms upstairs. "I don't know why but something tells me to get to the emergency room as quick as possible." I thought as I got to the next floor and followed the signs leading to the emergency room.

I had run down the different corridors and passed one where I saw Travis slowly walking down one with a weapon in his hands. "What is Travis doing with his sword?" I thought. Things were now getting really questionable. I quickly and quietly followed Travis as he was making his ways to a certain room. He was walking very creepy like. Something about him felt off.

He walked up to this room and grabbed the door handle. He stopped at first and just stared into the room. He then opened the door and walked in. The door swung open and I got myself up to the side of the door and peeked in. When I did I saw Travis standing over a woman. "Those who do not give into their despair shall perish." I heard him say. He raised his sword over the woman's face and when he lifted his weapon high up into the air I quickly ran into the room.

"NOOOOOO!" I said as I grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him away from the woman. I looked at Travis who had bright green eyes. "You're being controlled. What kind of hospital is this?" I said to him. Travis didn't check to see the situation as he ran towards me and went to slash me but I lifted my hand and grabbed his wrist stopping his attack. He was trying to struggle and break free, "Travis what the hell happened to you?! This isn't you! You need to snap out of it!" I said trying to help break him free. Travis stepped closer to me and kicked me in the side, he kept doing that until I'd let go of his wrist.

I ended up using my other arm and grabbing his leg. I then lifted him off his feet and flipped him on his back. I went to go jump and pin him down on the ground but he raised his foot and kicked me in the stomach. I moved back a bit and he was already on his feet and punched me on the right side of my face and then elbowed me in the gut. I fell on my knees and he put his sword directly in front of my face.

"Seeing as how you are still alive Mark I'm going to make sure that you will stay dead. Let's see if you can stay dead when I slice your body into chunks." Travis said with an evil tone. I quickly reached out and grabbed the sword with quick reflexes as blood poured onto my hand.

"I'm here to get my friend back. I don't know who you are but you will give him back to me. Even if I have to beat you out of his body." I said with determination on my face. I pulled the blade towards me and head butted Travis back a bit. He let go of his sword when I attacked him and I threw the blade to my side. I walked over to Travis and punched him across the face left and right multiple times, "IS. THIS. ENOUGH. FOR YOU!" I said between every punch before I raised my right leg high and kicked him out the door. I then ran up to Travis and grabbed him by the throat as well as pinning him up against the wall. "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do." I said to him as I raised my fist to knock him out but Ghouls appear out of nowhere and quickly pulled me away from Travis.

"Get off of me! Let me go!" I said trying to break free from them. Travis had fallen on the ground and gotten back up as he walked towards me.

"I forgot to say that I don't fight fair. Now let's give you a proper punch." He said as he punched me in the gut again and it began to hurt a lot more than the first time. He then punched me across the face causing the Ghouls to let go of my arms and Travis stomped on my chest causing me to have my back against the wall. "Pathetic. How can you save anyone if you can't save yourself? That's the problem with being hero, you can save everyone but when you are the one required saving no one gives a damn to lift a single finger." He said down to me. I then grabbed his feet.

"Maybe that's true for most people, but Travis has friends that will be there for him when need be. What would you know about what it means to have friends? Travis is too busy running away from his problems because he has a lot on his shoulders. He's too afraid of losing people he cares about so he distances himself because he feels like he is protecting them if he's not around when it's the exact opposite. He has friends who are willing to die for him at a moment's notice that's how loyal they are. They are probably the best group of people I've ever seen. So where are you Travis?! Where is the real you?! You have people waiting for you back at home! Everyone's worried sick about you! BREAK FREE TRAVIS!" I said throwing everything I can at him in those words.

I then saw Travis run backwards grabbing his head like he was in pain. "Come on Travis! Break free!" I said encouraging him. I then took out the photo and held it up to his face, "Look at this! This was a photo you and me when we were kids before that incident! You and I would play this make believe where we would destroy monsters that threatened people's lives! Your alias was Dragon and mine was Poison Dart. It was the game we used to love playing as friends. I've spent my entire life wanting to show to you that I'm sorry for what I had done to you; I know that the real you is still in there so show me the real Travis!" I said as I started breaking through to him.

"NO! AGH! NO! STAY BACK TRAVIS! YOU CAN'T BREAK FREE! I HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER YOU! REMEMBER NOBDOY CARES ABOUT YOU! DON'T BREAK FREE! AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Travis was screaming as his eyes lit up ever brighter as rays of green light shot out of his eyes and he kneeled on the ground as his head shot up screaming. Then I watched as he started thrashing about. "Get out of my head! I don't want this! I'm in control of myself! You aren't me! Just…Get..OUUUUTTT!" He screamed as green mana poured out of his mouth like a waterfall and then vanished in front of us. Travis collapsed onto the ground breathing heavily. The two Ghouls started to advance on us now knowing that Travis wasn't on their side. I quickly grabbed Travis's arm and wrapped it around my shoulder and started being his crutch to get him to safety. I turned left at the end of the hallway and when we got to the end I saw an elevator and pressed the button. The door slowly opened and the Ghouls were quickly creeping up towards us. I pressed the button to get us to the first floor but the door was taking its grand old time closing.

"Shit I don't think we are going to make it." I said. I put Travis down on the ground thinking that I would have to transform to fight off these enemies. I then heard Travis say something.

"Close your eyes Mark." He said as he placed his hand over his belt.

 **"** **Light, please."**

I put my hands over my eyes as light was casted out and then I looked to see the Ghouls dropping their spears and running around blind. The door finally started to close and the elevator began moving. We finally had a moment to catch our breaths. I turned around to Travis and held out my hand to him, "Need help up buddy?" I asked him. He had a smile on his face as he grabbed my hand.

"Thanks a lot Mark." He said as he got up. He then moved over and bear hugged me. I then heard him cry, "I'm sorry for what happened and what I said at DJ's. It's great to have you back." He was about to break down but I had to interrupt this.

"We aren't out of the clear yet. There has to be a Phantom here. We need to find the Phantom before we leave." I suggested.

"There are two Phantoms and they are powerful. One walks around in female form but has a black tail wrapped around her waist, that is Succubus. The other one is probably going to stay in Phantom form and that would be a red one called Incubus. I know where Incubus might be located at but I'm not sure about Succubus. We have to be careful." The moment he said that we got to the ground floor and the door slowly opened. When it did we both got wrapped in something like a tail and both of us were lunged out of the elevator and fell onto the ground. When we looked up we saw a woman with a black tail wrapped around her waist.

"I'm taking it that is the Succubus Phantom?"" I said as Travis and I got back up off the ground. Travis agreed with me. The woman in front of us began laughing as a purple mist began forming around her. Her Phantom form had this short purple hair, two black horns on her forehead, this white face with deep red lips, she had these bright red eyes, white fur around her wrists and ankles, she had a purple colored body with a black heart shape on her chest, she had some curves on her body, thin legs that had some black lines like veins on her legs. She had these claws that were black and her tail grew a bit in width while in this transformed state. Succubus's voice also changed, it was more innocent sounding and a bit seductive sounding.

"Now come at me boys but don't be too rough with me I am a lady after all." Succubus challenged us.

"Travis we need to transform and fight her." I suggested him as I slid my Driver On ring on my finger.

"Yea we definitely should…Wait what do you mean we?" He asked as I placed my ring over my belt.

 **"** **Driver On!"**

My belt appeared and I took out my Lion ring and slid it on, "I mean we transform." I said as I began my transformation pose. "Transform!" I said as I put my ring into the belt.

 **"** **SET! OPEN! L-I-O-N! LION!"**

I did a pelvic thrust causing a spell circle to shoot out and warp though me. "It's go time!" I said as I maintained a ready stance. Travis just had a complete look of shock on his face.

"Wait you're a Mage too!? What the hell!" He said surprised.

"This doesn't make any sense. There is supposed to be only one mage we were to fight. Nobody said anything about secondary Rider?! Wizard is supposed to be the only Rider!" Succubus said.

"Sorry to be such a disappointment then." I said as I placed my hand over my belt and pulled out my Dice Saber. "If you want some advice on how to handle the situation, then how about you just stand still and let me eat you!" I said as I rushed towards Succubus swinging at her wildly with my sword. She just kept dodging all of my attacks. Then she stopped as she spat out a giant purple mist around the entire floor. The mist was extremely thick and I couldn't see anything around me. "Travis! I can't see a thing! You need to be careful!" I called out to him. I then remembered that he might not be in best fighting condition after having to break free of the enemies control.

"I probably should've thought about that when I ran towards Succubus." I was now worried about his safety but had no way of getting rid of the fog. I then felt something wrap around my waist and I was being slammed into the ceiling and then back on the ground. Then I was lifted off the ground by a few feet and slammed into the walls of the hospital. I got a look at what was holding me and it was the black tail that Succubus had. She then slammed me onto the ground and more tails emerged out of the ground and quickly wrapped around my arms and legs. "This isn't good." I said.

I heard something like electricity in the room and in a quick second I was being shocked by the tails. I screamed in pain as the electricity was coursing through my body. I could feel my body going quickly numb and then I saw Succubus emerge from the fog. Her fingernails had turned black and were the source of all of the tails wrapped around me. "When I'm finished with you I'll put Travis under a more pleasurable spell, one that will he will never break free from. You may be a mage but you don't seem to have as much power as Wizard. Any last words before I kill you?" She said as her attack was still in effect. Then the attack stopped, her tails retracted back to her fingers, and all of the mist began to get pushed away as Travis finally transformed.

"He might not be able to speak but I certainly do! It's showtime!" Travis said loudly as his belt appeared around his waist and scanned a ring. "Transform!"

 **"** **Hurricane…DRAGON! Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow!"**

A dragon's roar was made from his belt and he ran towards Succubus in this neon green attire. He was hitting her open handedly slamming his palms across her face, "You stay away from my friend!" He said with every landing blow. It was surprising at how much he was pushing her into a corner where she couldn't fight back. He hit her in different parts of her body in rapid succession. His last set of attacks was taking his right hand and landing a blow across her jaw and used that same hand to grab a ring from his side and then took that elbow and punch her across the face causing her to stumble sideways. He then scanned his ring.

 **"** **Connect, please."**

He then pulled out his sword and put it in gun mode as he held his finger on the trigger unloading bullets at Succubus causing her to stumble back between each bullet until she was up against the wall. I think more than thirty bullets were used by the time she was up against the wall. He then stopped shooting and I quickly got up. I walked over to him and placed my hands on his shoulder, "Let me take care of this." I said. Travis stepped back without a word. I then lifted my Dice Saber and spun the wheel on the side of my blade and took out my maroon colored ring. I placed the ring on the side of the wheel while a drum roll noise was playing from it.

 **"** **2! Buffa Saber Strike!"**

Beating music began playing as the tip of my sword glowed a bright red glow. Succubus then started to move after recovering from Travis's relentless attack. Travis only then lifted his gun and shot more bullets into her, "Any last words before I kill you?" I asked as I slashed my sword sending out two of my red spell circles that quickly formed into Buffalos charging at Succubus. Succubus raised her voice as she began screaming. My two animals lowered their heads as they collided into her setting off an explosion and a yellow spell circle appeared from the smoke and went to my belt that made a burping news. "Oh boy that was tasty. Wished I had some mayonnaise for that though." I said as I closed the gates on my belt and reverted back to my human self. I then had a hard time standing as I was brought to my knees feeling worn out. Travis then reverted back to his human form and ran to pick me up.

"Mark are you okay?!" He said with worriedness in his voice. He guided me to a chair as I was having a hard time feeling some parts of my body.

"Yea yea I'm totally fine. Just that attacked lasted a bit longer than I would've liked. Just give me some time I should be fine. Did we get all of the Phantoms?" I asked him.

"No, Incubus is still around." He said.

"Well what are you waiting around for? Go get him. I'll be there once my body recovers. Besides you seemed like you still have a lot of energy to use." I told him.

Travis had this look on his face like he didn't want to leave me alone but I had to pressure him to go and after he finally left I turned around to look at all of the bruises all over my arms. "I got my ass a bit handed to me there. Chalk that up as bad strategic planning on my part." I said chuckling. I looked at the direction of where Travis ran off, "Go get'em buddy." I said as I closed my eyes to try and rest up.


	4. Dark Phantom Ritual

Author's Note: Hey guys hoping you all are enjoying this 2nd book of Wizard! So as you guys might have noticed I've been uploading chapters like crazy and I have a reason for that! I want Chapter 5 to be a Christmas chapter, for multiple reasons. First it's the 25th chapter in this series as a whole and Second, Christmas is coming up around the corner and on Christmas Eve I'll upload Chapter 5 as a way to help celebrate the holidays. It won't be as a dark the last four chapters and will be alot more light than dark. After I upload Chapter 5 of Wizard I'll be taking a small break from Wizard to get the next three chapters of Deadman Wonderland: The NEXT Generation going. I will also come January be writing another actual book that I want to try and get published so my chapter uploading on here will be a bit dull but I will do my best at juggling three books as best as I can. Anyways enough of me talking go and do the thing that you came here to do which is read this chapter! Have Fun and Happy Holidays!

* * *

(Travis's Viewpoint)

I was running up the flights of stairs trying to get to the Emergency Room to check up on Manuela. "I can't believe I let them control me like that! Before Welsh can harm anyone else I'll kill him! I can't let the people I know get put in danger." I said running up the stairs. I got up to the third floor and right before I hit the last step a couple of security guards came down from the fourth floor. I quickly stopped and looked at them, "You guys aren't controlled are you?" I asked them. They looked so frightened.

"N-n-no we just woke up from something like a bad nightmare to see us at our desks. We don't remember anything that happened since last month." One of them said. I then asked them if they knew when a guy named Dr. Viktor Welsh came to the hospital. "He came to this hospital last month. He used to be a doctor here five years ago and then just vanished last year. His wife was the same way as well." The other one said.

"Okay I need you guys to get out of here. You should know where the exits are find them and get out of this building as far as you can. There is a monster in this building and has two of my friends as hostages. I need to get them out of here. The quickest way out is the west entrance, there is a guy in the lobby of that area that will protect you. Make sure he is safe as well. Now go!" I said to them. The two guards quickly made their way down the stairs. "How did they break out of the spell they were in? Who else broke free?" I thought as I ran through the door in front of me and when I did I saw a massive group of females all walking down the hall in the same direction. They just walked right passed me like I wasn't even there. Then when all of them started to vanish from the hallway they started to chant something.

"Despair or die. Despair or die. Despair or die. Despair or die." They all said in a monotone chant. All of them seemed to be heading upstairs and amongst them all I couldn't find Rachel or Manuela. I followed behind them wondering where they were going and I tried to snap some of them out of their trances but none of them were responding. I then made my way to the destination where they were going so that I could find out what was so special that they had to all gather at one spot. I ran all the way upstairs and I didn't see Rachel or Manuela in the crowd of women and female children but I knew where they were heading and it was the roof of the hospital. Once I got up there and entered the roof I saw a giant circle that was in the middle. I then looked up at the sky to see a full moon that illuminated the giant rooftop but most of its shine was in the middle of the entire roof where the circle was drawn and when I got closer I saw it drawn in blood. It was also pouring down rain on the roof. In the middle of the circle stood Rachel and Manuela each one on the side of Incubus who had his hands up like he was some deity. The women began walking towards the circle and when they did I saw a few of them immediately fall onto the ground and start despairing.

"Shit! I need to get them out of that circle!" I said as I ran towards them and tried to pull them out. But when I got to the circle the people who weren't in the circle grabbed me and pulled me back. "NO GET OFF OF ME! LET ME GO!" I said trying to fight back but the immense strength the women had on me was really hard to fight against. Then three of the women that had collapsed and began to despair had their entire bodies cracked open as new Phantoms appeared. I watched them jump or fly off the building all in one direction. A lot more women started walking towards the circle but nothing happened to them and they immediately began breaking down in tears as they started walking towards the side of the roof. Three that were crying jumped off the roof and plummeted to their deaths below. I watched this happen as sets of three women walked into the circle to see if they would despair or die. "That's what they mean when they were chanting all the way up here." I then watched as the next three didn't despair and then walked towards the end of the roof and fall backwards. The next three were going to start moving up but then were ceased to move. I then was shoved to the front of the entire group and restrained by them as Incubus who had his back turned to me this entire time as well as my friends turned around to face me.

"I'm surprised that you were able to break free from Succubus's spell. I didn't think you were that mentally strong to do so. This is a bit troublesome and a setback. I can't have you interrupting my Phantom Ritual I have going on. But Master Wiseman says that I shouldn't kill you because if I kill you then you will not turn into a Phantom. You have to despair just like everyone else." He said.

"What do you mean I won't turn into a Phantom? I've already fought my despair I should be free from that happening." I said trying to fight free from my restraint but to no success.

"Oh? You don't know? Your power comes from an ancient Phantom. There is a Phantom that resides in your belt where you have been getting all of your power from; you should know who it is. You think it was just some random coincidence that you can cast spells without the help from Dragon? Dragon is the Phantom that lives inside your belt. If the user despairs then Dragon is free from his restraints and will take his place by Wiseman's side once more." Incubus said. My eyes widened hearing this information.

"That can't be." I said.

I looked back up to see Manuela now standing in front of me. She had placed her hands on the side of my face, "Will you despair for me? In doing so you will be protecting me. Come with me, after a few moments the pain will stop. You just have to give in and everything will be okay." Manuela said robotically.

"Manuela you need to wake up. You don't want this, your sister wouldn't have wanted this." I said to her. I watched as her stoic expression turned angry. She grabbed me by my shirt and threw me closer to the circle.

"The Manuela you knew became lost when you pinned her up against the wall and held a fist to her. How would you know what my sister would want? You didn't know a speck about her like I did. How can you know what the dead wants?" Manuela said as she raised a fist and punched me in the face. Then Manuela stood up as she stared down at me, "Get up and fight me. A piece of paper is a better protector than what you have been to me." She said angrily. I slowly got up and grabbed my Sleep ring.

"She isn't thinking straight. Incubus is using everything that is negative built up inside her to control her mind and body. I need to sever that connection otherwise she is going to keep doing what she's doing." I thought as I hid the ring in my finger. I lifted my hands up to fight and before I got to make a step towards her I was grabbed from behind and thrown backwards to see Rachel now assuming a fighting stance. Manuela then ran towards me as she threw a right hook but I grabbed her wrist. I was going to twist her arm to her back but she kicked me in the crotch causing me to let go of her wrist and she lifted both her hands up and slammed it down on the back of my head causing me to fall onto the ground. She then lifted me up by my hair and punched my face in a couple of times and then threw me backwards onto the rooftop. I tried to get up but she kicked me across my face putting me back down on the ground. Water splashed everywhere as I fell back into it.

"Drag Travis into the circle, it's time for him to despair." Incubus said. Rachel came and grabbed my arm and Manuela grabbed my other arm but before they pulled me I heard Manuela groaning like she was fighting against the spell she was in. I looked at where she was staring to see the pink wallet with the heart on it. I took this time to reach over to Rachel's arm and pull her down on the ground with me and slid the Sleep ring on and place it over my belt.

 **"** **Sleep, please."**

A red spell circle hit Rachel in the face as she immediately passed out on top of me. "NO! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Incubus said pissed off. I got up off the ground and picked up Rachel and moved her to the side. I looked over at Manuela who was going through the same thing I was when Mark broke the spell on me. I ran over and picked up the wallet and opened it to see a picture of Maria and Manuela standing side by side. I ran up to Manuela.

"HOW DO YOU HAVE THAT?! THAT'S MY WALL—" Manuela then threw her head up as she began screaming into the pouring rain and fell to her knees.

"Manuela you need to come back to us! Come on I'm right here! I'll protect you but I can't if you don't do your part! Come on I'm right here! I'm not invisible I'm standing right in front of you! Fight back!" I said to encourage her to break free from the spell. I could tell she was trying as tears began running down her face.

"I…I Can't….Help…I don't want…This…." She was saying as she tried to fight from the spell. I then wrapped her arms around her.

"I want you in my life. I want you to be happy. I want you to live! Please come back to us…To me." I said as she gave out one last scream and when I let go I saw the green mana pour out of her mouth and she collapsed on the ground. I picked up the wallet and placed it in her hands. I then picked up her body in my arms and slowly walked over to Rachel's body and laid Manuela's next to hers.

"How DARE you! ARE YOU SO INTENT ON RUINING THIS RITUAL?! WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" Incubus said roaring at me. I scanned one of my rings while keeping my back turned to him.

 **"** **Driver On, please."**

My belt extended out as I pulled out one of my transformation rings. "I'm the one who will be everyone's hope." I said to him as I flipped the switches on my belt.

 **"** **Sha Ba Doobi Touch to Transform"**

"Transform." I said.

 **"** **Flame…DRAGON! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn!"**

A flaming dragon shot out of my belt and began circling around me and hit my back as my dragon upgrade appeared. I then spun around as I slid my Connect ring on my finger. "Now it's showtime." I said as I slammed one thumb on the levers to put the black hand on the spell side and scanned my ring.

 **"** **Connect, please."**

A red spell circle appeared next to me and I reached in and grabbed my Drago-Timer and when I pulled it out it was already attached to my hand. "I'm going to end this fight real quick before anyone else gets hurt." I said very calmly. I then turned the dial until it made a click sound and pressed on the black thumb.

 **"** **SET UP! START!"**

The dial began turning as I pulled out my swordgun from my belt and ran towards Incubus. Incubus pulled out a spear and ran towards me. He went to thrust at my but I spun around at the last second and slashed his chest twice before pulling my arm back and thrusting towards him. The blade hit and caused him to stumble back a few feet. He then raised his right hand as black mana began to form around his entire body. He then shot it to the ground as multiple versions of him appeared. I then pushed on the thumb of my gauntlet.

 **"** **Water Dragon!"**

A blue spell circle appeared on the ground as a copy of myself appeared. We both took out spell rings and scanned them over our belts.

 **"** **Big, please"**

 **"** **Copy, please"**

I had scanned my Big ring to make my sword into a bigger blade like a katana. My Water Dragon copy scanned the ring to make a second sword over his and ran into battle. There was eight Incubus's as four of them began to engage in battle with me. I slashed my sword at one but it raised it's pole to block my attack. I then noticed an Incubus clone coming up behind me with it's spear close to my back. I then ducked and moved to the left to have the spear go through the Incubus in front of me. That one shattered to pieces and I put my sword up to block as the other clone thrusted his weapon at me. Once my sword went up to block it I hit the thumb again.

 **"** **Hurricane Dragon!"**

My green form appeared out of the sky with two swords and slashed the two in front of me and when it landed on the green I saw green mana forming around it's left hand and shot it out to the last Incubus standing close to me. The two clones that my Hurricane Dragon form slash shattered to pieces leaving only the four keeping my Water Dragon busy. I ran up to my Hurricane Dragon and told it to scan our rings over the blade.

 **"** **Hurricane Slash Strike! Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow!"**

 **"** **Flame Slash Strike! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn!**

Both of our swords had a dragon's roar as our element's began swirling around the blade and we pulled on the trigger as a stream of mana ran towards the other two Incubus's. Now the only ones left is the real Incubus and a clone. I noticed that the clones move slower than the original and pressed on the black thumb to bring out my final dragon.

 **"** **Land Dragon!"**

A yellow version of my dragon emerged from the ground and took its claws ripping the clone to shreds. Then my Land Dragon began glowing yellow mana out of it's hand and shot a ball out towards Incubus. The ball hit Incubus and made him unable to move. Then me, Water Dragon, and Hurricane Dragon took out our Kick Strike rings and scanned them over our belts, "This nightmare is over Incubus. Your finale." I said.

 **"** **Very Nice! Kick Strike! The Best!"**

We each jumped up into the air and came striking down at the same time to Incubus but then the Land Dragon quickly dispelled its attack and then returned it to us where we immediately fell to the ground feeling like we had boulders placed on our chests. "Shit! I can't move! What the hell happened?!" I wondered as Water Dragon and Hurricane Dragon were destroyed on the spot. Land Dragon then stood next to me with its hand over my body. Incubus then walked up next to me with his hand on Land Dragon's shoulder.

"It's easy for me to manipulate another person's mana. All I need is some type of connection to freely pour my mana into. That gravity control that it shot out to me was perfect seeing as how the mana still had to maintain contact with the host. Now if I don't know any better, the longer this spell is going on the more mana you end up losing thanks to that gauntlet you are wearing. Until your mana has run up let's play a game to see what I have to do to make you despair. Now seeing as how you didn't despair when those women fell off this tall building I should probably make a different approach. Which is funny because I would think that saving people would be your hope, but that doesn't seem the case. Maybe it's your friends over there? What if I killed Manuela seeing as she is no longer a Gate, Rachel on the other hand has some potential at being a Gate, I just have to find out what drives her." Incubus said as he turned around. When he did to face my friends we both noticed that Manuela wasn't where I left her.

"Where's Manuela?" I thought as Incubus started looking all over the place for her. I then saw Manuela grab my swordgun next to me after appearing behind Land Dragon and slashed my form in the side causing it to vanish and the spell that was keeping me on the ground now gone. Incubus then ran towards her with the spear and Manuela spun around at the last second and slashed across Incubus's waist causing him to step back a bit. Manuela then did a rising cut and when her blade had finished cutting him she brought the sword down after taking a step closer to him causing him to get sent flying backwards as he fell on his back. Manuela then ran towards me and reached out her hand.

"Come on and get up!" She said as she helped me up and placed the sword back in my hand. "I think this belongs to you." She also said. I was just surprised that she knew how to use the weapon. I didn't have time to talk as Incubus threw the spear at Manuela and I pushed her to the side as I raised my fist and punched the side of the weapon with my right fist sending it to the ground. I then pulled out a spell ring. "I'm tired of this fight. It's time to end it!" I said as I scanned my ring.

 **"** **Bind, please."**

Red spell circles appeared around Incubus chaining him until he couldn't move a finger. I then took out the new ring I got form Dark Wizard and put my sword into gun mode.

 **"** **Explosion Shooting Strike!"**

At the tip end of the barrel, purple mana began forming and starting getting bigger for every second I didn't pull the trigger. After about five seconds I pulled on the trigger and a giant bullet coated in the mana zoomed towards Incubus and once it hit him, his entire body exploded and when the flames died down from the pouring rain, there was nothing left of him. I reverted back to my human self as I fell on my knees exhausted from my fight. Manuela kneeled down and picked me up from the ground as we walked over to Rachel's collapsed body. Once we got over there the rain suddenly began to stop and the clouds quickly departing. When they began to depart I could see the sun rising up in the sky. "I can't believe this entire fight took all night." I said yawning. I didn't want to move but I couldn't stay here. Manuela helped me get all of the patients back to their rooms and while doing so we noticed that everyone was broken free from their spells including the doctors as the people started getting the proper treatment. I was admitted to the hospital to recover from my wounds in the fight. Nobody knew that it was me that saved them and everyone had a lot of questions as to what has been going on for the past month they had been under Incubus and Succubus spell. To keep my identity a secret I ended up not saying anything.

I woke up later on that day all healed up to see Mark sitting up against the wall asleep and Manuela with her head on the side of my bed. She was sleeping soundly and I looked around the room to see some flowers in a vase next to me and a tray of food as well. Manuela's hand was wrapped around mine and I lifted myself up to try and collect my thoughts. This woke up Manuela. "Hey superhero." She said with a light smile.

"Hey." I said.

She reached into her pockets and pulled out the pink wallet and placed it on my bed, "My sister made this herself. She gave this to me two years ago as a birthday gift. It was to celebrate me starting my teenager years. It took her about three weeks to make but it looks like she just bought it from a store. I know it wasn't from a store because she put her signature inside it. I remembered that moment last night and while I was under that spell I thought for a brief second I saw Maria bring me back down to earth and she said to me, "I want you to keep on living." It was at that moment that I was able to break out of the spell and when I did I saw that you were in trouble and jumped into action. I lost this wallet a few nights ago before getting admitted to the hospital, some college guys were trying to have their way with me and they took my wallet. How did you get it back?" She asked.

"I ran into those guys last night. I can tell you the one who had the wallet won't be thinking twice about picking up chicks." I said to her. She began laughing. "What's so funny?" I asked her. She then had this bright look on her face.

"It feels like no matter what we do we just can't be separated. It's like we are soul mates or something." She said chuckling. My heart fluttered at the thought. I then looked over at Mark whose eye was twitching.

"Okay Mark I know you are awake." I said to him catching him in the act.

"OOOH what gave me away? Was it the dashing good looks?" Mark said jokingly. He then got up and walked over to us as he put his hands on ours. "Maybe I should leave the room and give you two love birds some alone time huh?" He said. Manuela raised her opposite hand and punched him in the side. "GYOW! Or maybe not." He said as he placed his hand under his arm.

I then looked outside my window, "You know what guys? I think it's time we go back to DJ's. I want to be with my friends again, now that Rachel is receiving the right care and with everything that has been going on, I think it's time I go back and this time to stay." I said. Mark immediately bear hugged me.

"AH HELL YEA! Everyone is going to be excited to hear this news! Actually why don't you tell them when they walk through that door! Hey! Guys! Come on in! The angsty emo kid isn't angsty anymore! Or emo! We have our old Travis back!" The moment he said that I looked at him and then at the door as Karina and Shawn came running at me. Manuela quickly got out of the way as Shawn jumped up into the air and tackled me out of my bed. "IT'S GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK! ALL OF US MISSED YOU!" Shawn said loudly and excitedly. I ended up wrestling him on the ground laughing and having a good time. Karina helped me up off the ground as she wrapped her arms around me with a huge smile on her face.

"I'm happy to have you back. Don't ever do that to us again you hear me!" She said with tears running down her face.

"We are glad to have you back Travis." Robin said as she placed her hand on my shoulder. Then I saw DJ walk up to me.

"Are you ready to return to work sir?" He asked.

"Yes I am. We have a lot of work to catch up on. Our enemies are getting stronger, but with Mark at my side and all of you guys I think we should be able to take them." I responded. DJ stretched out his arms wide as I broke free from everyone and gave him a long hug. "I missed you guys so much." I said.

"I missed you too buddy. I missed you too." DJ said.

Over the next four months Mark and I started taking down more and more Phantoms. I learned that Mark had to consume the mana from Phantoms in order to stay alive otherwise he would despair and give birth to his Phantom called Chimera. So we worked together so that when we would destroy a Phantom he would be the one to kill it, since if he doesn't kill the Phantom he can't consume its mana. We started becoming successful in our hunt but as close as December was getting, the less Phantoms there were which was starting to be a bit of trouble for Mark. Apparently Ghouls started showing up more in random areas around town and Mark was always left to take care of them and was using their mana to get by. Manuela and I started to get to know each other more and a couple of times she flirted with me or tried to make a move on me, but I refused to have any type of romance with her because I was still dealing with getting over Amber Wild and at times I would get scared once my emotions started to build up. Shawn was learning how to make rings from DJ and when I returned home from the hospital I got two new rings. I got a ring that Shawn made on his own called the Voice Ring, and an orange ring that was the Dress Up Ring. In October I got a blue ring with the picture of a dragon falling in a hole called the Fall Ring which has been useful. Then in November I got the Smell Ring which was a dragon with something coming out of its nose. December I got a new ring called Excite, which had a picture of a dragon with a flame symbol above its head.

Robin and I worked together on a case she opened to find the 10 people who went missing when I got my powers. We marked off me, Karina, Amber, and Libby Woodruff from the list since we know where they are, as well as whom they are. Karina told me more about what happened to me during the days of the fight against Dark Wizard and who Casey and Ashley were. Supposedly I had died when I was being tortured by Medusa and Dark Wizard, and Casey had brought me back to life. The thought scared me a bit but I was lucky to be alive. This became a prime motivation to get stronger so I don't have to go through something like that again. Now the date is December 19th, 2014 and everyone is getting ready for the coming holidays. This will be my first Christmas in what feels like a long time that I celebrated and with the people I care about.


	5. Winter Wonderland

It was about noon and DJ and I were the only ones in the house. We were playing monopoly that was set in Bowling Green. I had just landed on one of his rental properties. "Well it looks like you need to pay me money good sir." Dj said.

"I'm sorry but I don't seem to have any actual money. I might just have to pull out my monopoly money to pay you." I said slyly.

"You know that money isn't good here. It's not worth much especially since you don't have a lot left." DJ said with a smile on his face. I then pulled out from under the table a bag of Lay's potato chips BBQ flavored.

"Well then how about I pay in chips?" I said distracting DJ from the game.

"Hmmm it's an interesting offer but you can't stop from good old Pizza flavored Lay's." He said pulling out a bag from under the table and putting it down on the game board.

 **"** **Connect, please."**

I reached into the red circle and pulled out two different flavored bags. "How about I raise you by a bag of Sour Cream and Onions, and if that doesn't suit your pallet then how about Cheddar and Sour Cream." I said with one eye raised trying to make an offer.

"Now you are just breaking bank. But let's not forget that I am the master here." DJ said as he pulled out box filled with eight different flavors of chips. "You see in this box contains the Cheddar Cheese one with extra cheddar. Read'em and weep partner." He said as he placed the box on the table. I then put my hands up to my face.

"Ahh you always have a way to one up me! I guess I owe you 250." I said as DJ reached over the table and took all of the chips, and then we stared at each other as we busted into laughter. I kept laughing as Shawn walked through the front door with Karina and Manuela. Shawn was being a bit loud.

"So I told the guy, no you can't drink that crap here!" Shawn said. Manuela and Karina began laughing and then I got up.

"Hey bro." Karina said as she ran up to me and hugged me. I hugged her back and when I let go I saw Manuela tug at my red long sleeve shirt I was wearing. When I turned to face her she wrapped her arm around me and hugged tightly. Manuela had grown to be more affectionate around me over the months and DJ had even given her a place to stay in the house after the fight with Incubus and Succubus. She had been attending school in town and still to this day if she wasn't socializing she was quiet and was always cute about how she communicated with everyone. She had gotten over what she had done to me over the summer and vowed to stay by my side. She had been competing in these activities in town using her voice and dancing skills which is how she had been getting money to live off of since she is ranked second in a lot of the competitions. I even came to see her perform and it just took my breath away.

Shawn looked at me as I was once again staring deep into Manuela's eyes, "Ahem. Hey Travis can I talk to you real quick outside?" Shawn asked. I snapped out of what I was doing and walked outside in the cold with Shawn. He then put his arm around the back of my neck. "Look here buddy why don't you just ask Manuela out on a date? There is a Christmas tree lighting ceremony going on over beyond yonder at Wintergarden Park. Also there is a competition going on Christmas Eve at the park where the biggest tree is going to be lit up and it would be an amazing idea for a date." He suggested.

"I would like to but I don't know if I'm ready to love again after Amber. Like how does someone just get over something like that?" I said to him. He then handed me a pamphlet that had an invitation to the tree lighting ceremony.

"You start by taking steps forward to get away from it." He said as he walked back inside after patting my back. I looked down at the pamphlet a bit surprised at what he had said.

"Take steps forward huh? Never expected Shawn to be the one to give me advice like that." I said as I gave a little smile looking at the pamphlet. I took a moment to look at the paper as I tried to think about how I was going to ask Manuela out. I was always used to the girl making a move and I began talking to myself on how I would ask her out. Each time I sounded like a creepy person. "No I need to figure out how to do this correctly. Why is it so hard for me to talk to girls? Especially the one I've known for months." I thought as I finally said screw it and walked back in the house. When I did I saw Shawn with a blonde wig on with the hair spiked up and making a weird pose and had an evil laugh going.

"MWHAHA You has failed again Jojo! I now have your precious Karina in my clutches and there is nothing you can do about it!" Shawn said. He was doing an impression of Dio Brando from the anime Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I then took out a ring and scanned it.

 **"** **Excite, please."**

A red spell circle moved through my body as my upper body became extremely muscular and I spread my feet shoulder width apart as I put my hand in front of my face and my other arm freely leaning against my side.

"Curse you Dio! You are pure evil! You let go of my Karina this instant before I use my Hamon to rip you to shreds!" I said as I breathed deeply. Karina and Manuela just had this look on their face like they had no idea what was going on. I then slowly walked up to Shawn and blew on his face causing him to fall backwards.

"UWWWWRRRYYYYY! Curse you Jojo and your ability to breathe! But mark my words this isn't over yet! I will take you and your entire family down mark my words!" Shawn said as he ran towards the front door and out it. I ended my spell and the look on Manuela's face when she saw my built body shrink back to its original size. Shawn then walked back in laughing hysterically and shortly after he started laughing so did I.

"Does anyone want to know what is going?" Karina asked. I finally stopped laughing at our little improvised performance to explain.

"Shawn introduced me to an anime series called Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and we were acting out on a scene whene the main character Joseph Joestar was fighting to protect his lover Erina from the villain Dio Brando. It's a really sweet series." I said as I went back to laughing with Shawn to the point we both sat down on the couch laughing and pointing at each other.

"Boys…" Manuela said. We then both stopped laughing, looked at her and then back to each other as we bursted out laughing again. I knew that Shawn did this to help make me feel better on asking Manuela out and when we were finally done laughing our asses off, I finally got up and walked over to Manuela.

"Okay Manuela I have a question for you. Um this is kind of hard on me to say but I was wondering if you would like to-" I said as she was staring at me. She had this look in her eyes and then I got distracted. I tried to look away but had forgotten what I was going to say.

"Yes Travis?" She said back to me.

"Well…Um…Uh…I was wondering if maybe…You'd like to go to this-" I was then interrupted as Mark came bursting into the room and tripped on the carpet as he slammed his entire body on my back knocking me and Manuela onto the floor. I had put my hands up to stop me from hurting her and noticed that my hands were located next to Manuela's face. My face was just half an inch from her face and it felt like it was just us in the room. I then got pulled up from her as Mark started wiping my back.

"Oh shit hey sorry about that buddy. We need to go right now. There is a Phantom attack and we need to head out. Oh hey can I ride on your bike with you? I'd fly but you know about wasting my mana and all that jazz." He said. I looked at him with an irritated look on my face. "Oh did I interrupt something important? Well it will have to wait we gots to go!" He said as he grabbed my wrist and hurried me out the door. Once we were out the door Mark told me where the Phantom was sighted and it was at the Wintergarden Park where the tree lighting was going to be held at in a few days. I got on my bike and started it up. Mark was going to get on but I told him to fly.

"Why?" He asked.

"Consider it ruining a special moment I was going to have." I said to him. I then drove off and took out a transformation ring. "I'll take a back way to the park." I said as I activated my belt.

 **"** **Driver On, please."**

I then flipped the levers on my belt and scanned a ring. "Transform." I said.

 **"** **Flame, please. Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!"**

I casted the red circle out and drove my bike through it revealing my form and then upped the speed on my bike as I got to Wintergarden Park. Once I got to the entrance I saw footprints in the snow that weren't human. I left my bike at the entrance and began running to the wooded forest. Once there I saw a man in what looked like his 50's cowering on the ground as a giant creature wearing a red Santa Clause outfit was hovering over him. The creature had these long horns sticking out the side of his head and curled around and I got a look at his feet that looked like hooves. The white stuff around the Santa outfit looked more like fur and when he reached out with his hand to pick the man up off the ground I saw these black claws that were the size of bears.

"Tell me what you cherish most so I can destroy it in front of you. You will despair human and give rise to a Phantom just like my mistress has predicted." The Phantom said. I then gathered a bunch of my mana casting it into a ball of fire and shot it out at the Phantom causing him to get sent flying until he hit up against one of the trees. The flame I had cast out burnt his red outfit revealing this thick greyish fur and muscular body build. He didn't look like the normal Phantoms I'm used to fighting, he looked more demonic if anything else. "The Ring Bearing Magician?! Well ain't this a surprise. I heard that you have been becoming a bit of a nuisance lately. My mistress would reward me well if you fall to me." He said.

"Mistress? Well that doesn't matter since you are about to die anyway." I said point at him. I charged at him and he raised his claws that extended out and began whipping me all over my body causing me to be thrown back on the ground. The claws that were whipping me then wrapped around my body and lifted me up in the air and then slammed my body onto the ground and then I was lifted back up only to have the process repeated. My arms were wrapped around my body causing me to not grab one of my rings to try and defend myself. "Mark I really could use you right now." I said as my beating kept up. I then got raised up into the air and right before I went back to getting slammed on the ground I saw Mark transformed already soaring from the sky and using his Dice Saber to cut through the claws. I started to fall and he swooped over and caught me and then we got back onto solid ground.

"I can't keep saving your ass like this Wizard." Mark said keeping our Rider names as aliases.

"Look I was not expecting claws to become whips." I said to him.

"Well if it isn't the Primordial Mage. My mistress said I'd probably be fighting you. She said that I could kill you, but to leave Wizard alive." He then raised his hands and slammed them into the ground. I then quickly grabbed a ring and scanned it.

 **"** **Defend, please."**

A red spell circle appeared over my hand and I slammed that circle onto the ground as the whip claws erupted out of the ground and began attacking us but was stopped from the multiple barriers that were protecting us from the attacks. I then found an opening in his attacks, "Beast, go invisible." I commanded as Mark grabbed one of his rings.

"You don't need to tell me twice. Let's go!" He said excited.

 **"** **Go Chameleo! C-C-Chameleo!"**

An interesting music theme began play as his right shoulder transformed into a green armor with the face of a chameleon with its tongue sticking out. Mark then ran in the middle of the whips while invisible which caused the Phantom to become confused.

"Where the hell did he go?!" The Phantom said bewildered. Then I heard the Phantom laugh as Mark got close and then all of the whips stopped attacking me and retracted back to attack Mark. The whips started beating the ever loving crap out of him a lot worse than me as I stopped my spell and began running towards my friend in trouble. Mark had fallen on his knees but the whips were still beating him all over the place.

 **"** **Connect, please."**

I reached into my spell circle and grabbed my swordgun and put it in gun mode as I fired my bullets at the Phantom to try and stop his attacks. But none of the bullets made it to him in the swirling whips that were attacking all over the place. Then one of the whips went wild as they slashed through the giant tree and more of them began cutting through the tree like it was paper. "I need to get my friend out of there!" I thought. I then grabbed one of my rings and flipped the thumb on my gun.

 **"** **Defend Shooting Strike!"**

A red spell circle appeared at the end of my barrel and I pulled the trigger as I shot a bullet wrapped in my circle about two feet from Mark's located and when the bullet hit the ground a red dome formed around Mark keeping the whips from hurting him and when the attacks finally stopped I saw Mark collapse on the ground. When he fell he reverted back to his human form. He was covered in blood and had cuts all over his body and he also had cuts all over his clothes. I picked him up trying to wake him up. "Hey! Hey! Wake up! Come on damn it wake up!" I said. I finally got something from him.

"I'm okay. I just need to, agh, rest. I'm sorry but beat his ass would ya?" He said as he grabbed the side of my arm. I then put him down on the ground as the claws retracted back to their owners and fully restored. I then looked over to see the old man over by the tree that was pretty much torn to shreds.

"This tree…It was everything to me…Without this tree I can't have my special lighting event on Christmas Eve…" The man then fell to the ground as purple cracks began to slowly appear on his body. I then looked over at the Phantom.

"Humans are such fragile creatures. Completely powerless when an actual problems arise. Soon he will give rise to a nice Phantom and you can't stop me now Wizard, not with your friend out of commission. The name is Krampus the Christmas Devil Phantom. When that man has fully become a Phantom we will work together to kill your friend and turn you into my mistress." He said with an evil snickering. I then slowly stood up ready to end the fight.

"Let's just see you try it." I said as I flipped the levers on my belt.

 **"** **Sha Ba Doobi Touch to Transform!"**

 **"** **WATER…Dragon! Bubble! Bubble! Bubble! CRASH!"**

A blue dragon flew out of my belt and then collided with my back as my neon blue form appeared. "You can't do anything against my whip claws! Not even your form can do anything when you're getting beaten senseless." Krampus said as he shot out one hand of claws at me and had another erupting from the ground. But I had already got another ring ready to use against him and flipped the levers.

 **"** **Lupacchi Magic Touch to Go! Liquid, please."**

I quickly turned my body into a giant pile of water and quickly floated in the air towards Krampus and collided in with him. I kept using my attack to wet his entire body and then I materialized behind him with my swordgun pointed at his back and pulled on the trigger sending a lot of bullets causing him to fly forward and then I pulled out my ring to end the fight. "Answer me this question Krampus. What do the cops say when approach a person to arrest huh?" I said as I scanned my ring.

 **"** **Very Nice! Blizzard! The Best!"**

I flew up into the air and held my right hand out towards Krampus as the snow on the ground started to rise up and began wrapping itself around him. Krampus was now frozen in a thick layer of ice and my dragon tail began glowing a bright blue mana. When that mana began to glow bright like a Christmas tree in a dark place, the mana then flowed to my right foot and I came soaring down from the sky and kicked right through Krampus who upon impact had more ice building all over his body and when I landed on the ground behind him, the giant cube of ice shattered to pieces. I then looked at where Krampus once stood, "The police officer says freeze." I said as I transformed into my Flame Style form and ran over to the man by the tree. He had almost all the cracks connected on his body and in just less than a minute he would turn into a Phantom. He held out his hand as he grabbed the tree stump.

"Every year for the past 49 years I decorated this tree for the Wintergarden Tree Lighting so that everyone would know that they can have a bright Christmas. My family has been doing this for generations and I'm the only one left to do this and now it's all gone." He said as tears ran down his face. I grabbed one of my Engage rings and quickly slid it on his finger.

"You have done a great job bringing hope to everyone all these years. I am a resident of Bowling Green and when I would come here I'd always get excited to see this tree lit up. You have been giving people hope and now it's time that someone gave you a new hope to keep fighting. I won't let you despair and I'll make things better for you." I said to him. He then slowly looked up to me.

"Who are you?" He said weakly.

"I'm your new hope." I said as I flipped the levers on my belt and placed his hand on it.

 **"** **Engage, please."**

The man's body froze and the cracking froze a bit as my red circle appeared over him and I jumped inside. I went soaring down into his underworld and when I arrived I looked around to see the man standing at the tree putting the final touches on it. I walked over to see a photo of what looked like his family taped to the tree and when he put the last ornament on he looked at the photo with the biggest smile on his face. "Once again I completed my task to brighten up my community for another special Christmas." He said brushing himself off the snow on his clothes. He then began to walk away and I saw a giant crack appear on the tree and a giant cat erupted out from the photo. This cat was ginormous. It's head was pretty small than the rest of its body and it's stomach was about the size of two football fields.

"That is a fat kitty." I said as I looked up to see its green and black eyes. The cat let out a yawn which shook the entire Underworld and was causing more cracks just from the sound it was emanating. I quickly got into action.

 **"** **Dragorise, please!"**

I shot out the spell circle and Dragon came flying through and when he did I noticed a huge difference between my Phantom and the one I'm fighting. "Dragon is only big enough for the head but looks like a tree leaf to the rest of the body? This isn't good at all." I thought as I used up another ring.

 **"** **Connect, please."**

From the spell ring I pulled out my bike and hopped on. "Dragon this creature is huge; do you know anything about what type of creature it is? Maybe we can learn to defeat it if I knew what it was." I asked. As I summoned out my swordgun and tried firing bullets at it. None of the bullets were even phasing it.

"This is a Jólakötturinn, otherwise known as The Christmas Cat. It's a Christmas demon that attacks the people who are lazy. Its massive and I don't know how we are going to kill it. Any attacks we do will only feel like a pinch. I don't know much on how we are going to destroy it but we'll have to try if you want to save this human because if not you'll have to deal with the Phantom in real life." He said as he kept trying to breath fire on it but they weren't getting the cat's attention. Suddenly the cat saw Dragon and hissed at him. The hiss created a strong wind causing Dragon to crash on his back and the hissing created more sound that causing more cracks in the Underworld. I looked all around it's body for a weakness and then I saw one.

"DRAGON! It's head and neck are the only places we can do any damage to it. Let's try severing it's head! Get over here I have an idea!" I said yelling. Then Dragon began moving but when he did the Jólakötturinn began walking towards us and just it walking was causing more cracks in the Underworld. Now almost all of the cracks were connected all it needed to do was just charge into one of the walls and the man will become a Phantom. Dragon was close to being near me but the cat reached it's hand up in the air and slammed it on him causing him to become immobile. I then began shooting at the cat but it was doing nothing and I started to hear him yell in pain. "It can't end like this… I CAN'T LOSE HERE!" I said as defeat began to wash over me.

 **"** **Chimeraise!"**

I heard and for a brief moment I saw Mark transformed as a yellow spell circle appeared in front of him. Mark was standing right underneath the Jólakötturinn and out his spell circle came his Phantom. It had a body that was bigger than Dragon. It had a gold head of lion, two wings one was red with Falco's wing and Dolphi's Fin, its legs were that of Lion's body, the head of Dolphi and Falco were next to the Lion's head, and its tail area was Chameleo's. I watched Mark jump on its back and they began flying in the air. Mark looked over at me, "You let me handle this Travis! But I'll need a favor from you; I need you to pour a lot of mana using the Big Ring on Chimera here! We will sever its head for you. Just get Dragon and you out of here. Also If I can kill this thing I'll get a crap ton of mana food to last me a month!" He instructed me. I quickly did as he instructed me.

 **"** **Big, please."**

I poured a bunch of my mana into my spell as I casted it out to Mark's Phantom. "Alright buddy it's go time!" He said as they flew up into the air. I saw Mark activate his finisher as they were on their way to the Phantom's throat.

 **"** **KICK STRIKE! GO!"**

While they were flying up to the throat of the Jólakötturinn I watched Mark fall backwards and when he did two gold circles appeared around his leg and he began flying up towards Chimera's back and when his foot made contact with its back, Chimera began to glow extremely bright. They made contact with the Phantom's throat and were slowly moving up. I put my gun into sword mode, then pulled on the back of the thumb on my sword and scanned the ring.

 **"** **Big Slash Strike!"**

A spell circle appeared in front of me as I raised my sword above my head and slashed down as a giant blade of red mana zoomed towards the cat's face and it hit it right in the eyes causing it to throw its head back up allowing Mark and Chimera to move at a quicker pace and in just seconds the left side of the cat's throat was severed. The cat having it's throat severed exploded into a gold spell circle that went inside Mark's belt. Chimera brought Mark to me and Dragon was just starting to get up off the ground.

"Dragon are you okay?" I asked my Phantom.

"Ooh…Ugh…I'm fine…" Dragon said to me. He then flew off in the Underworld and disappeared.

"I thought you were having trouble so I jumped into your spell circle to give you a hand. I can tell you though I'm going to have to rest up when we get home; I'm still feeling it from Krampus's attacks." Mark said chuckling. Chimera roared and then vanished as well. A spell circle appeared in front of me and Mark ran through it, "I'll see you on the other side." He said. I walked through the spell circle and when I arrived on the other end the man's purple cracks were quickly vanishing. He stood back up but was still sad over the loss of his prized possession.

"…My hope to the people…" He said with a tear down his face. I tried to cheer him up but he just wanted us to leave him alone. I ended up taking Mark with me on my bike back to DJ's. Once we got home I noticed that Manuela was not around but everybody else was.

"Where's Manuela?" I asked.

"Oh she's out helping around the city with decorating for Christmas. She won't be back until the 24th." Karina said to me.

I was really sad since I was going to ask too take her out on a date. "This sucks, I wanted to take her out on the 24th but now I can't." I was a bit miserable when I thought that. I ended up going to bed shortly after getting home as I was tired from my fight. When I was in bed I looked up at the ceiling. "I almost didn't kill that Phantom in the Underworld. Maybe I need to start getting better at handling situations that can change at a moment's notice. If Mark wasn't here I would not have saved that man. I haven't been having any problems with fighting Phantoms these past few months, so why was this time different? I'm going to have to get better I guess." I said as I fell asleep.

The 24th showed up a lot quicker than I thought it would. Robin was backed up at work, Shawn was busy since the 23rd helping Manuela with the decorations around town, Karina was helping DJ with Christmas gift wrapping because DJ went out and got us presents and said that he had a fun little activity on Christmas Eve for us. I had woken up pretty late and I walked downstairs to see a familiar that wasn't mine sitting on the coffee table in the middle of the living room. It was like my red Garuda, but this one was white and grey. It's head was moving side to side and was perched on top of something that looked like a black coat and a white envelope. I walked closer to the bird and when I did it saw me and began squawking loudly. Then it started flying and out a window that had a big hole in it. I knew that was how it got in, but instead of worrying about that I walked over and picked up the envelope, opened it, and read the letter inside.

"Wizard, you forgot something when you fought Dark Wizard. I feel like you should have this."

I looked down to see the black leather trench coat that was folded. I unfolded it out to be reminded about how my dark self almost killed me and Rachel, as well as my allies. I put the trench coat on, "It's kind of snug. It doesn't look that bad on me actually. I'm not entirely sure how I would feel about wearing this though." I thought to myself. I then heard a knock at the front door and I walked over to answer it. It was a post office person with a small package with my name on it.

"Are you Travis Edge?" The mailman asked me.

"Yes I am." I responded back.

The mailman then had me write my name down on a slip of paper. "Okay here's your package. It didn't have a return address on it which is surprising. We just received this in the middle of the night and a letter that said deliver to this address immediately. It was very weird since it was just in the middle of the room and wasn't there when we closed the building down last night. Normally we are closed on Christmas Eve, but I thought that maybe I should take it upon myself to deliver this to you." The man said to me.

"Oh well that's very kind of you. Have a happy holiday and new year man." I said with a smile on my face. I walked inside with the brown package. It had rope around it and tied up like a Christmas bow. I was looking at the package and noticed that there wasn't a return address, "This doesn't make any sense. Who sent me a package?" I wondered. I began to untie the string and ripped open the package to see a red box with two letters that said "S.C." They were in cursive on the box. I opened the box to see a letter that I took out and read.

"Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas Travis. I have been watching you for a while now and have noticed that you have been a great boy this year. I noticed that you had a problem the other day with a young man named Ted Banks and his Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. Well if you take this gift and go back to that tree at exactly midnight tonight and use this gift, a Christmas Miracle will be performed. You keep doing what you're doing Travis, oops I mean Masked Rider Wizard. Ho Ho Ho! –Santa Claus."

My eyes widened as I read this letter multiple times, "This has got to be some kind of joke." I thought. But when I looked into the box I saw a ring band and next to the ring band was a ring that had a picture of a Christmas tree and a dragon. "A Christmas miracle huh?" I said with a smile on my face. I decided to plan on what I was going to do until everyone came back. "I guess I'll watch some television. I can tell this is going to be an amazing Christmas." I said as I sat on the couch and turned on the TV.

Some hours had passed and it was ten at night. My friends had all came home around six while I was napping and I had told them about the ring, and how I got the trench coat. A lot of them found it very weird but everyone was all up for the Christmas Lighting. Apparently Manuela and Shawn had gone around the town to help set up lights in secret at the Wintergarden park and were going to have the guy Ted Banks show up at midnight to surprise him with a surprise. All of us had gotten pretty festive for tomorrow as well as tonight. Karina, Manuela, Robin, Mark, and Shawn had made sometime to decorate a few of the trees and DJ had kept Ted busy so that everyone can do this. Ted ended up hanging with another one of DJ's friends until midnight and his friend would bring him to the lighting. Then at 10:15 PM DJ walked into his shop and brought out seven different colored boxes. He placed them down on the coffee table.

"What is all this DJ?" Mark asked him.

DJ went back into his work space and out with seven different colored bows that stick to gifts. Each bow was the same color as the boxes. DJ then explained his fun activity he had. "In each box consists a gift card that is totaled to fifty dollars to use however you like. But one of them is at a total of a hundred. I have given you each a bow that has your name's on it if you look at them and what I want you guys to do is go up to a box and place your bow on it. When you do I want you to lift the box upside down and look at the name written under the box. Manuela helped with writing the names randomly without knowing what was inside the box. So this isn't rigged, I will be the last to go after everyone has made their selection. So let's get things started, Mark you should go first." DJ said pointing at my childhood friend.

"M-Me? Why me?" He asked surprised.

"Because you have been a huge help to us. You helped us cope while Travis was away and you even brought him back to us. Travis is like family to us all and so are you. We all would be honored if you went first." Robin said to him. You could tell on Mark's face how happy he was as well as choked up about it. He slowly walked to a box and placed his bow on it. The next person was Karina, followed by Shawn, Robin, and then me. We all turned to Manuela waiting for her to go up to place her bow on one of the boxes. She then turned to me.

"Hey Travis?" She asked.

"Yea what's up?" I responded back.

"What were you trying to ask me earlier before you left to fight that Phantom?" She said staring at me.

I then froze in place as I was not prepared for this. "Shoot I was going to ask her out but I wanted to at the tree lighting tonight. Oh shoot what do I do now? How do I respond?" I said in my head over and over again. I went to go say something but she ended up turning around and walked up to the boxes. She stared at the two boxes that didn't have a bow on them and then looked up at DJ.

"These boxes that gets bows on them are a way of giving a gift to a random person in this room right?" She asked.

"In a way yes." DJ answered back.

Manuela looked back at the boxes and then down at her bow. She turned around slowly facing me and walked up to me. When she did she raised her bow and placed it on my chest. I looked down at the red bow on my chest.

"Why did you put the bow on my chest? I'm not a box." I said confused.

"That's true you're not a box." She said softly.

Everyone looked at us in the room as she grabbed my fingers with her hands and placed one of them on the side of her face.

"…And the reason for that is because you're my Christmas gift this year." She said as she grabbed my shirt and pulled me closer to her as she kissed me on the lips. I felt a giant spark of something coursing through my body when she kissed me as well as hearing everyone hooting and hollering around me.

"O-M-G! Travis got some lip action Ha ha ha ha!" Mark said energetically.

Manuela finally released her lips from mine and I had this surprised look on my face as I wasn't sure how to respond. "Well how was it?" Manuela said blinking her eyes at me and having this smile on her face.

"I-I-I-I never felt like that before." I said shocked. I was holding her hand tightly and my heart was beating really fast. "I never felt something like that before." I said to her as she wrapped her arms around mine. Manuela then grabbed the two boxes and moved them to the side. She then began flipping the boxes with bows over.

"Karina, your box goes to Shawn. Shawn your box goes to DJ. Robin your box goes to Mark." She said. I then looked at the remaining boxes and realized that the two left went to one of us. Manuela then picked up the boxes and flipped it over as she walked over to me and handed them both to me. "Which one without looking do you think has your name on it?" She asked me. I was watching her look at them and noticed that the box that was sitting in my left hand had to be hers. I handed it to her and she turned it around to show her name written on the bottom of it. I turned the box in my right hand to see my name. When I did I saw a heart drawn around my entire name. I looked back up to Manuela.

"You saved my life, you fought to protect me over the months, you saved me from Incubus's spell, you helped give me a reason to be acceptive of my sister's death, you did your best to save her, and you have been one of the most caring person I could ever ask for. I love you Travis." She said to me in a sweet tone. After hearing all that I finally got up the courage to ask her out.

"Manuela, would you like to see me perform this Christmas Miracle at the Tree Lighting Ceremony? But not as my friend, but as my girlfriend?" I asked her. She beamed up as everyone around us began getting their coats on so we could head straight down there. We all got inside DJ's car and Robin's Jeep as we all headed down to the ceremony. I sat next to Manuela as she rested her head on my shoulder on the way down there. Once we got down there I saw a group of people gathered behind their trees with cords all plugged in during the dark night and we all waited for Ted to show up. We had five minutes at this point as Mark got everyone to their positions and we watched as a car pulled up and Ted walked out with a bandana over his eyes. Once he got out there was another random man with him that was probably DJ's friend. I took Manuela with me away from everyone far enough where they would not see me cast my spell. We were sitting atop some trees that was about fifteen to twenty feet away from the crowd. But where we were sitting we could see everyone without anything blocking our view. I looked at my phone as we were just about two minutes from midnight. I slid my ring on my finger.

"You ready for an amazing Christmas babe?" I said to Manuela. I said as she moved up closer to me.

Everyone was starting a countdown to midnight and right when they finished Manuela said something to me in response.

"Light up the sky Travis." She said resting her head on my shoulders again.

 **"** **Merry Christmas! Please."**

I watched as the ring slid off my finger and began to get absorbed into a brilliant glow and zoom towards the tree that was nothing more than a tree stump now. The light hit the stump and in just mere seconds the tree that was torn down began growing until it was back to its normal size. Then we watched as decorations and lights started wrapping around it. The ball of light from my ring then went to the top of the tree and vanished as a star was left at the top. The Christmas tree lit up so bright that it looked like it wasn't night time to begin with. Then I watched as fireworks started shooting up into the sky and then vanishing this just kept going for about ten minutes until a giant finale was made that left these words in the sky, "Merry Christmas Ho Ho Ho." Then a picture of Santa Clause was made. I looked back at Manuela and kissed her underneath the light up sky.

"Merry Christmas Manuela." I said to her.

"Merry Christmas Travis." She said back.


	6. Shawn's Mother

Author's Note: Hey guys so sorry about being late on chapters I've recently went jobless and have been scrounging around looking for a job and I finally found one. I'm going to try and be more updated with getting chapters up next month so there will be no new Wizard or Deadman Chapters this month. But I should have something by the time February rolls around once I start knowing what my daily schedule is like. Enjoy this new chapter of Wizard in the meantime! I will be spending time on this chapter and the next two or three developing character with Shawn, Robin, and DJ so I can get them more intuned with the story. I want people to like these characters more than the people they represent in the original Kamen Rider Wizard. Happy Reading.

* * *

It was finally January 1st 2015. Manuela had spent the night for the past couple days and we both awoke to smell something like breakfast. "Hey Travis something smells really good." She said. I looked at the clock to notice it was seven in the morning.

"Yea but who is cooking this early in the morning?" I wondered as I got out of bed. Manuela chose to stay in bed and I walked out my bedroom door yawning and making my way to the kitchen. The kitchen was your standard generic looking. There wasn't anything special about it. You had a sink as well as its counter space on the left side of this big room. The fridge was adjacent from the sink with a table on the left side that extended out to the end of the room with cupboards for almost everything including dishes. There was glass on the ones underneath and above was just a normal light brown wooded cabinet where the food was. On the white stove were black skillets with eggs in them as well as saucepans with what looks like gravy and chopped sausages. The table on the left side of the fridge was covered in food that had aluminum foil over them. In the kitchen cooking was Mark. "Mark? What are you doing cooking this early?" I asked him.

He wasn't responding so I walked up to him to see that he had headphones in and was dancing to the music in his ears. He then saw me and got startled, "WHOA Travis! Knock or something man I didn't even know you were up." He said. I then just gave him this dumb look on my face.

"Its 7:00 AM man what are you doing cooking all this food? Plus you have head phones in how am I supposed to get your attention?" I said tired as hell. Mark then grabbed me and pushed me out of the kitchen and closed the door behind him.

"I can't tell you now buddy but hey since you're up why don't you go get everybody up." He demanded.

I put my back up against the wall, "I was tired but now I'm starting to wake up. I might as well go get everyone up." I said as I walked down the hall. I went up the stairs near the kitchen to Karina's room. When I did I noticed that Karina's light was on. I knocked on the door, "Hey Karina you up?" I asked.

"Yea just give me a sec." She responded back. It took her a few minutes to come to the door and when she did I could tell she was in this one piece night gown. "What's up bro?" She said to me.

"Mark is up to something. He's cooking us breakfast and apparently it's almost ready. Can you wake up DJ so we can get ready for breakfast? It smells pretty good." I said to her. She had this huge smile on her face.

"Oh I love it when Mark cooks! He's so talented as a cook! Hell yeah I'll get DJ up." She said as she quickly slammed the door and started running around her room.

"Is Mark that really good of a cook?" I wondered as I walked back down stairs to the guest room that was located next to my bedroom. I knocked on the door and then walked in to see a hammock set up in the room. Shawn was sleeping in it and was talking in his sleep.

"Stay away Phantoms I'm Wizard's sidekick! Blah Blah Blah Henshin…" He said as he tossed and turned in his bed. I went to his side to wake him up but when I was looming over him he took his fist and did a straight punch in the air hitting me in the nose. "My finale! Roaring Dragon Fist!" He said in his sleep as I fell backwards on the floor.

"Ouch! Damn he can pack a punch. Great I'm bleeding." I said as I walked over and grabbed the bottle of water lying on a table. I then took the cap off and walked over to his bed side. I held the bottle over his head, "Finale." I said as I turned the bottle upside down as all of the contents splashed all over his face.

He began to freak out as he lifted his body up and put his hands out like he was ready to fight, "Where are you Phantom? You want a piece of me?" He said looking all over the room and saw me. "Travis? What are you doing here? OH Your bleeding? Who did that to you?" He said surprised. I grabbed a hand mirror and put it in front of him to show his reflection.

"You. Your punches really hurt." I said to him. He tried to get out of the hammock but ended up falling out of it and onto the floor. I helped him up off the floor as he started wiping some of the blood off my mouth.

"I'm so sorry!" He said as he was wiping it all off. I had to get him to stop.

"It's okay Shawn you didn't know." I said as I started to smile and laugh the situation off. "Roaring Dragon Fist huh?" I said to him. He then had a look of embarrassment on his face.

"Oh…Uh yea that's, um, that's something that I…Uh was working on…Oh hey is that food? Whaddya know I'm pretty hungry see you in the living room Travis bye!" He said as he darted out the room. I began chuckling on the inside.

"Shawn your too funny man. Never change." I said as I turned around and saw a photo on the desk. It was a photo of all of us during Christmas. Everyone had a smile on their face but Mark decided to hold two bottle of mayo on my shoulders and made this funny face with his mouth wide open like he was going to eat something. Mark had his eyes wide open as well. "Nice way to photo bomb a Christmas picture Mark." I said as I began laughing at his face. I saw a piece of paper next to the photo that was in Shawn's handwriting. The letter said.

 _"_ _Mom, I have found friends that mean a lot to me. I feel like they are my family and my greatest hope. They have become my reason to keep living and doing my best. I wish you were here to see how amazing they are. We are making Bowling Green a safer place to live in and I could not have been prouder for the gift God has given me."_

I put the letter back where it was, "If your mom could see you now she would be extremely proud of you." I said as I left the room with a smile on my face. I walked back to my room to see Manuela sleeping again on her side. Her hand wrapped around my pillow as she cuddled up with it. I sat on the floor next to her as I rubbed my hands down the side of her face, "Hey babe wake up." I said in a whisper to her. She slowly opened her eyes and began to move around in the bed.

"Mmm? Hey did you find out what was going on out there?" She asked. I then put my hand behind her back and lifted her up.

"Yea Mark is making breakfast it seems like a big reason too. I'm getting everyone up so come on let's get going." I said to her. She looked at me with her tired eyes and then fell back onto the bed. I could tell she was extremely tired. She then sat back up and began stretching as she got out of the bed and walked to the bathroom door that was in my room and before she closed it she looked at me.

"I'm going to get a shower I'll meet you out in the living room." She said yawning. She then closed the door and I could hear the shower running in the bathroom. I then walked over to my dresser and picked up my cross necklace that my parents gave me before their death.

"You are our greatest hope. May you shine as bright as a light reflected gem." I said under my breath. My parents said that to me the day they died when I got this necklace. I wore this every day especially when I'm fighting because it feels like my parents are standing right next to me giving me the strength to keep fighting. I put my hands together as I did a silent prayer to my parents. I then heard the door behind me open and Manuela had her head poking out of it.

"Hey I forgot to grab some clothes can you grab me a pair of pants from the closet and a shirt please?" She asked me. I told her I would as she closed the door and went back into the shower. I walked over to the closet and grabbed a pair of black sweats that had the white words "BGHS." On them and grabbed a pink short sleeve shirt from her white dresser that was next to my black one. I came back and knocked on the door and opened it. I placed the clothes on the toilet seat and walked out. The bathroom was extremely steamy from the shower running. I then walked out the room and went down to the living room where everyone was helping Mark with getting the food on the big glass coffee table we had.

Karina had this huge look on her face like she was going to jump into this food and devour everything before we got a chance to eat. "Hahaha. Whoa there speedy calm down. Have you always been excited over food?" I asked her. Her eyes were sparkling at how much food we had.

"Food is life Travis. I can eat about anything and when it comes to Mark's cooking it's like I'm eating a piece of heaven." She said as she rolled her tongue around her lips.

"You know I haven't tried Mark's cooking. But it looks just like what anyone else would make so I'm not sure what the whole appeal is." I said as I looked at the spread.

In the middle of the table was a huge deep green dish container filled with eggs. On the left and right sides were bacon made to perfection, at the front of the dish was a fruit dishes. The fruit dish had grapes, peeled oranges, strawberries, and kiwi. The dish behind the eggs was a curvy bowl filled with pancakes. I think there was about thirty well-made pancakes in there. There was a bowl on the side of the pancakes with apple and cinnamon oatmeal that was big enough to feed at least ten people. Then at the other end from me where Mark was sitting was a carton of milk, orange juice, iced water, and Green Lipton Tea. It was no doubt that this spread was amazing including how it was laid out.

"You went far out of your way with this spread Mark. You going to tell us what the occasion is for all of this?" DJ asked him.

"Well we need to wait for two more people to show up." Mark said with this huge smile on his face. I then heard the front door open as Robin came in with a black suit and pants on and her police badge attached to her hip. Her black hair was combed sideways and the Engage ring on her left hand finger. She looked like she was a bit tired.

"Hey guys I'm here! Sorry I've been busy with a case lately. But I'll talk about that later." Robin said. In her hand was a file that she put down on the end table and sat at the other end of the table where the drinks were amazed at the giant spread. "Oh my goodness look at this! This is amazing! Who did this?" She said with a surprised look on her face.

Mark then stood up after sitting down with his arms outstretched and then took a bow with one hand to his chest, "Why mademoiselle that would be this handsome beast." He said with a French accent. Robin laughed at his joke.

Shawn sat adjacent from here and was right next to the end table where the case file was. He was looking at it but when he saw me staring at him he looked back at the table. "What's up with him?" I thought to myself. I then got distracted as Manuela began to walk down the stairs with her long hair in a ponytail and she came and sat right next to me. I put my arms around her as Mark then grabbed plates and started passing them off to us. He then put utensils in the dishes so we can get our food.

"OKAY! Can I have everyone's attention! I want to make a special announcement!" Mark said clapping his hands. All of us looked up at him.

"So as we all know that today is the first day of the new year! The first day of 2015! I have had a great year last year with being reunited with my old childhood friend Travis, to making new friends with all of you. I haven't had things go the way I wanted them until last year. I've struggled alot from when I was a kid, to losing Travis as a friend, to losing my parents, and everywhere in between. But this year I want to start this year off with not only this feast but a goal that I want to work on! This year I want to continue fighting the Phantoms and to grow closer to you guys as if you were my own family. Growing up without a family I kind of lost what that feels like and since I've been with you guys for the past seven months now I'm starting to get that feeling back. I'm happy to know all of you guys and I know that this year is going to be a great year for us. With that let's all dig in! I prepared this feast to help celebrate the new year with my friends…No. With my new family!" Mark said.

All of us cheered and got excited and then we dived into the food. Karina was the first one to be quick than any of us. We were all fighting over the pancakes and the eggs. I ended up getting just one pancake and a small thing of eggs as well as a few slices of bacon. I used my Connect Ring to grab syrup from the kitchen and poured it on my pancakes. I then looked at Mark.

"Yo Mark want some syrup?" I asked him.

"Nah I got the best syrup in the world right here." He said as he pulled out a bottle of mayo. I think Manuela about lost her breakfast.

"Who puts mayo on their pancakes?" Manuela asked sounding a bit disgusted. Mark then responded back in a singy tone.

"I do!" He said as he started free pouring it. Manuela went to put her hand over her eyes afraid to watch but left her plate unbalanced on her lap and it fell over and spilled on the floor. I quickly got up to pick it up and when I was going to go get something to clean it up, Shawn left for the kitchen.

"Aww my food…" Manuela said depressed.

I cut some of my pancake and used my fork to bring it up to her mouth. "Open up." I said to her. She opened her mouth and I put the food inside. She began to chew.

"Thanks." She said with a tender smile.

"So what case are you working Robin?" DJ asked as we were all curious.

"Oh I'm working on a cold case. There was a murder about three years back and I'm trying to find the killer. There was barely any evidence on the case which is why it went cold. If we don't have any leads to go off then there isn't much we can do. But since we have been fighting Phantoms I looked into it again and thought this might be a Phantom attack. Here I can show you the…Case file…" She said as she looked at the end table to see the file missing. "Oh crap I know I put it down there when I came in. Where did it go?" She said. We all got up to look around for it but it was nowhere to be found. Then we heard something hit the floor at the hallway entrance. Shawn was standing in the entrance with the file on the floor.

"Shawn?" Robin asked worried.

"Martha Newberry." Shawn said in a dead like tone.

"Shawn are you okay?" I asked him as the atmosphere in the living room went completely dead.

"That's why she never came. It all makes so much sense now." He said as if he was about to break down. I slowly walked up to him and as I put my hand on his shoulder he shoved it off and pushed me to the side as he dashed out of the house.

"SHAWN!" All of us said as we ran outside to catch up to him and he was running really fast down the road.

"Mark let's go!" I said to him as we ran down the road after him. Shawn was faster than us but by the time he got down to the corner where you could see the Wood County Jail and the Job and Family Services he just stopped running as he fell to his knees and threw his head back crying really loudly to the morning lit sky. Mark and I got up to Shawn as we helped him up off the ground.

"NO! GET OFF ME! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" He said trying to fight us. We gave him some space as he walked up to a stop sign and starting punching it repeatedly. "Why? Why? Why? WHY?! Not her! Not my mom! Not her!" He said as fell to the ground crying really hard and holding onto the sign. We stayed close to him as we let him get out everything that was building up inside him.

Sometime had passed as he finally walked back to us his face deep red from crying. We started to walk back to DJ's and he started to speak to us. "Three years ago my mom left me at home to go to work. She always would take multiple shifts at her job to provide for us. So she didn't come home that night. She had called saying that she was going to be late. It was my birthday the next day and she said she was going to go buy me a cake before coming home. I was so happy. But when the next day came, she never came home. It wasn't until night time when I finally called her job for them to say she left that morning. When I got off the phone men in black suits came to the door and said that my mom had gone missing. I was then placed into a group home where I spent most of my days and got emancipated so I could live on my own. I told myself that my mom would come to find me one day, that I would see her one day. Now I know that I can never see her again." Shawn said as more tears ran down his face.

We finally got back to DJ's and I got a look at the file. There was a photo of a body submerged in water with the head barely sticking out. "According to the coroner the body had been submerged in the water for at least a week. I had thought that Shawn was notified when they saw her driver's license but I guess they didn't." Robin said. Mark looked at her.

"What makes you think this was a Phantom attack?" Mark asked. Robin then took out another photo from the file and then laid it on the table.

"You see this wound on her shoulder; this is what killed her according to the Coroner's report. But here is the weird part, the inside part of her body was decayed as if it had been like that for years. The Coroner did this report three days after examining the body. But I'm thinking that whoever did this, and however they did it, the body didn't start its rapid decay until sometime after the bite mark. I think this could be a Phantom's doing, not human. " Robin explained.

Shawn was still choked up over his mother's death so Manuela and Karina were making sure he was okay while we were looking over everything. Then DJ brought over a map of the city. "I've heard of reports of a killing where the victims have been bitten. A few are confirmed that the bodies' organs were not even recognizable because of whatever attacked them. The organs were reported that they were infected with something but even the best scientists can't figure out what it is. But a friend of mine in the military gave me photos just now through a private email and I think it might have something to do with a Phantom. Travis and Mark go look at the computer as I work on something with Robin. We might be able to track where the next attack is going to be." DJ said. Mark and I walked over to DJ's desktop computer and were scrolling through the images of the victims as well as their organs.

"Stop! Look at that." Mark said pointing to a picture.

I zoomed in to get a look as I saw something on the bite mark of a young woman's shoulder. When I zoomed in I saw half a spell circle above the wound. It was a lot clearer than the other pictures as I started to try and recognize it in the other pictures but only saw blurs. "This is a Phantom alright. That spell must be the cause behind the decaying organs. DJ!" I called out to him. We ran down to the coffee table as DJ was putting red dots as well as date and times of the attacks.

"The monster is a Phantom. I think when it bites it's victims it is casting a spell to leave their organs decayed like your classical zombie's body that is decayed." Mark explained to DJ. Robin then looked at me with some concern.

"But all of the Phantoms we fought or have seen don't have actual mouths. How can this one be any different?" She said worried.

"Our enemies are starting to get stronger. If this Phantom attacked Martha Newberry then she wasn't a Gate. The life of a Non-Gate is worthless to the Phantoms so they can do whatever they want to them. DJ do you have anything?" I asked him. DJ had finally put the final touches on the map and connected the dots.

"I have." He said.

DJ turned the map over to me to show the letter Z drawn on the map. "This thing is attacking in a pattern. He's attacked six times each time on a different day and month. The first attack was August 1st 2009, September 2nd 2010, October 3rd 2011, November 4th 2012, and last year that I just found out that got reported: December 5th 2013. That last one was covered up by the military. Martha Newberry was the 2010 one. All the victims have been random so there is no connection but we now know where the next one will hit. Also if I'm correct on the date based on the pattern, January 6th 2015 is the next date and the location is here: Carter Park. That's down the road by the expressway." He said showing me the almost finished Z dotted line.

"That's five days from now. Are we 100% positive that the Phantom will strike there?" Robin asked. We all didn't know but I told her that if the pattern fits this has to be the day but what we didn't know was the time. Shawn then spoke up.

"My mom worked all night. She got off of work at 9pm when it was getting dark. I would bet this thing comes out at night to hunt, and when it does we are going to kill it. I want to watch it squirm in pain just like the pain it caused me when it killed my mother!" Shawn said angrily. I walked over and put my hand on Shawn's shoulder.

"We are going to catch this thing Shawn. It won't harm anymore people I promise you that." I said to him as a tear ran down his face.

"Thank you so much Travis. You don't know how much this means to me man." He said as he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hug. He then let go as he looked up at me, "I'm going to head back home I need some time alone." He said. DJ then drove him back to the home I gave him and we all began to plan on what we were going to day for the next few days. I even took this time to spar with Mark so we could be fit for when the day comes.

-January 6th 2015-

The day finally came when we would begin to hunt down this Phantom. Shawn had stayed at home and none of us had seen him since. We had gotten more information on the attacks and now knew when they were more likely to occur. The attacks occur at the moment where it's the darkest in the day so normally around 8pm -11pm. It was about 3pm as Mark and I were scoping out Carter Park. The park was located near the highway and in the middle of the park was a giant water tower with the words Bowling Green on it. The park was also kind of weirdly placed I thought. Next to the park was a cornfield and the park was really open spaced. There were some trees and you could clearly see anything in this place. Across from the park was a bunch of apartments. The park had some benches and a playground if you want to call it that. It wasn't as nice looking as the Bowling Green City Park in the middle of town.

Mark was looking around, "There isn't much ground to cover here but at the same time just the two of us won't be able to cover all of this. Like there are a lot of hidden spots for an attack. I think we should have your Garuda and Kraken cover the sky for us tonight. I'd say Unicorn but it's not as fast and noticeable than something flying." He said.

"Yea that would be nice. Oh hey how come you don't have a familiar? You're a mage aren't you? Why don't you have one?" I asked.

"I don't know. I didn't have one when this belt was given to me." He said.

"Wait. The belt was given to you? You didn't get it by surviving your despair?" I questioned.

"No. Someone I knew gave me this belt on his travels. But I'll tell you that story another time, it's not a happy one and right now I want to focus on taking this bastard down. For Shawn's sake." Mark replied.

"You really care about Shawn a lot don't you? It feels like you're closer than any of us are." I said back. Mark then looked at me directly.

"Shawn reminds me a lot of myself. The hyper and energetic personality, the need to be liked and not alone, as well as someone who puts on a smile whenever something is bothering him because he'd rather be happy than anything else. Shawn looks up to you a lot you know. He admires your ability to be strong. It's why he is doing his best with DJ to make rings because he feels in doing so that he is helping you fight the Phantoms. I've never seen someone so dedicated as he is. I kind of see Shawn like a brother I never had." Mark said.

"Shawn does work hard. It's funny because I thought he was pathetic when I first met him. But when I saved him from his despair I saw something in his Underworld. It was me sitting at the steps of the church near the courthouse. I was reading a book and Shawn as well as his mother walked by. Shawn asked his mom who I was and she responded with someone that will be my greatest friend one day. When I left that Underworld I had a lot on my mind about him. I gave him a home when he was kicked out of the group home he was in and in an instant he became a friend that I truly cared about. It bothers me that I never saw through his smile, the way he behaves. I thought that was just who he was, I never expected him to be dealing with so much pain underneath that smile. I actually liked that about him. When he is dealing with pain he smiles it away. To be able to do that shows to me that he is a very strong individual and I always wanted to be like that. When something bad happens to me I can't smile like it doesn't bother me. I just dive into the emotion that comes and it's hard to get out of it. I sometimes feel like my world is falling apart and will never get better." I said to Mark. Mark then put his hand on my shoulder.

"Shawn doesn't smile away his pain. That's not what he is doing. He's moving forward. Shawn is not letting whatever is causing him pain to get him down. He smiles because he knows that whatever pain he is in will eventually leave. You like Shawn because he doesn't allow things to tear him down or keep him pinned down. It's something you struggle with a lot and I think you can learn a lot from him. Shawn is a great guy and a lot of people can't see that because they are distracted by his personality and how he behaves. But if people take the time to look at him and get to know him, he's a lot more than just what they see." Mark said.

I looked up at the cold sky as we were standing in the snow. I was thinking about what Mark said and began reflecting that onto myself. "Always moving forward huh? I want to be able to do that too." I thought inside my head. "Alright Mark let's head back and get ready for tonight." I told him. We then headed back to DJ's to get ready for our fight.

(Shawn's Viewpoint)

I was laying in my bed holding onto a photo of me and my mother when I was going to first grade. I couldn't cry anymore but I felt my heart breaking. I remembered her words ringing inside my head, "My little magician finally going to school. You make sure to make a lot of friends okay dear?" She said to me before sending me off. I put my hands on the picture.

"Yea mom I've made a lot of friends." I said as I looked at the clock. It was 7pm and when I saw that I got up out of my bed and put the photo on my desk. I grabbed my jacket and my bookbag and walked out the door to Carter Park. "Don't worry mom I'll deal with this guy and you can finally rest in peace." I said as I ran towards the park.

It was starting to get dark and I was near the cornfield that had snow covered on it. I had a flashlight in my hand I was looking around for anyone that stood out of the ordinary. "It's freezing out here." I said. I ended up dressing light in case I needed to run I didn't want anything heavy slowing me down. Looking around I could tell that there was no one in the cornfield area. "This asshole has to be hiding; I doubt he would just be out in the open. So if I was a killer where would I hide?" I asked myself. I then flashed my light at the direction of the giant water tower. I then saw a row of trees and bushes that separate me from the cornfield to the water tower. I then found my answer. I heard a motorbike rev and when I looked behind me I saw something getting ready to turn down the road to the park. I quickly made my way to the water tower.

I got up to the bushes and trees and started looking for anyone suspicious around the tower. I looked around the base of the tower but didn't see anyone out of the ordinary. It was getting darker out and then I saw the person on the motorbike enter into the parking lot at the front of the water tower. It was Travis and Mark. I started walking towards them but then I heard a noise behind me. I turned around to see a woman with long black hair, white skinned, and was my height. She was really beautiful to look at. She looked like she was my age as well. She was wearing these blue bedazzled jeans and a black long sleeve shirt. I walked up to her and noticed her piercing blue eyes.

"Hey it's not safe to be here right now. There is a murderer that is hanging out around here." I said as I put my hands on her shoulders. She then lifted her hands and put them on mine.

"I think it's cute that you are looking out for me. You even look cute." She said back. Her voice was really nice to hear and something about her just enticed me. I don't know what the feeling was but just listening to her I forgot all about what I was doing here.

"Who are you? Why are you out here without something warmer on?" I asked her. She just gave me this cute smile while twirling her hair in her fingers.

"My name is Alexandria Wells. I'm out here because I lost my wallet earlier and I'm trying to find it. Hey you have a flashlight can you help me find it?" She asked. I told her I would. She then grabbed my fingers, "Then let's go handsome." I was then dragged away from the water tower as we went towards the baseball field that was in the park. Once we got over there she was immediately looking in the bleachers. "I'll look in the bleachers over here how about you look over there? It's a black wallet. There is a picture of some people I know and my ID. I was here earlier hanging out by lonesome and I think it fell out of my pocket when I was leaving." She said. I then remembered why I was here.

"Okay I'm going to help you find this wallet if it means so much to you and then I need to get you out of here. It's not safe being here with a killer prowling around." I told her. She agreed as I went to the other side of the bleachers and started looking around but not finding a wallet. "I wonder if it might've fallen underneath." I asked myself. I got off the bleachers and went under them looking for a wallet I then found something black and square like. I went over and picked it up and I found the wallet. "HEY I FOUND IT!" I called out to Alexandria.

"Really?! Oh that's so sweet! I'm coming on down!" She said. I was happy that I was able to find the wallet and now I needed to think of how I was going to get her out of here. I looked at the entrance and saw Mark and Travis wandering around. "She'll be safe if she stays with them." I thought. When I turned around I saw Alexandria in front of me. I handed her the wallet. She grabbed the wallet with the same hand I was handing it to and then took her other hand and put it on my chest. I started slowly walking back until I hit a support beam. "What are you doing?" I said to her.

She then leaned in close to my face, "No one ever would help me out like this. I love a guy who will help out others. You are a kind hearted person Shawn Newberry." She said.

"Wait how did she know my name? I didn't introduce myself yet." I thought. But before I could say anything her lips were placed on mine and I went to push her off but for some reason I didn't want this to end. I started to kiss her back and then she walked away. She then ended up dropping the wallet. "Shit there goes me being clumsy again." I then quickly bent down and picked up the wallet as I noticed a similar sticker on the back of the wallet. I knew that sticker right off the bat. It was a magic symbol that I used to have and gave to my mother when she bought me a bunch of stickers 3 years ago before she went missing. "Babe?" Alexandria asked me worried.

I slowly opened the wallet and when I saw the photo in the middle of the wallet I then knew that this wallet wasn't hers, but my mother's. The photo was the same picture of me going into first grade. The same photo I had on my desk. I then slid the ID from one of the pockets and saw my mom's name. I then had that negative emotion fill my body and then I looked up at Alexandria, "Why the hell do you have my mother's wallet Alexandria?" I said with a bit of anger in my tone.

"I guess my cover is blown. It's a shame I was really getting into you." She said as she had a purple mist form around her. Then before I could see her transformation she lifted her hand and moved me around and then kicked me out of the bleachers sending me flying out into the snow. I looked back at her as she walked towards me as her transformation completed. "Oh my God. You're a zombie." I said in horror.

The phantom had white body armor on the right side of its body. There was a shoulder plate and chest plate that was a tinted white and its left side was all black skeleton bones. Both hands had these dark dirty yellow claws that were more real than what we normally face, you could see the insides of its stomach area but with no organs just its black decaying like skeleton bones. Its legs were white armored with bony feet. But what scared me more was the face. The face was just its bones and when the mouth opened I could see dark yellow razor sharp teeth. The eyes were blood red and looked like they could pierce into your soul. This entire form was hideous and frightening to look at. The atmosphere around me went from a scary atmosphere to something that of a dreaded horror movie. I was paralyzed in fear as I saw the Phantom in front of me.

"My name is Virus, the Zombie Phantom." Virus said. I started to move backwards on the ground to get away from her but then I stopped as my left hand clutched on the wallet. I then fought through my fear and slowly rose up off the ground. I shoved the wallet in my pocket. "Hahaha are you going to try and fight me boy? I like that, so I'll humor you a bit before I kill you. Oh and don't worry about your friends over there they can't see you. When I go into my Phantom form I emit a barrier that is about twenty five feet where nobody can see me or my victims. It's perfect for hunting down prey." She said. Virus then held her arms out getting ready for me to attack.

"You took my mother away from me. You made my life hell for three years. I don't know how I'll do it but I will have my mother avenged tonight." I said as I clenched my fist. I then took a weird stance as I tried to push aside the fear that was welling up inside me. "Mom…God…Please watch over me." I said as I rushed an attack at Virus. I swung my right fist at her left side and she grabbed my wrist and raised it up above her head. She then kicked me in the chest sending me to stumble back and I caught my balance as I looked up at her. I then rushed her again with a left hook and when she caught that I sent a right hook across her face. I then lifted my leg and kicked her at her thigh causing her to bend over which I raised both my hands and brought them down on the back of her head. I lifted my knee at this point and made contact with her face and then used that same leg to roundhouse kick her onto the ground. I then took out a knife from my pocket and jumped on top of her ready to stab her through the head. But she grabbed my wrist and it became a power struggle.

"HAHAHAHAHA! THIS IS SO MUCH FUN! A human who thinks that they can kill a Phantom! This is why I like hunting you guys! While we are in this position let me enlighten you what my job is as a Phantom. I'm the one who kills people who aren't Gates. But that goal changed recently. Master Wiseman and my Mistress had decided that the only way we can make Travis despair is by killing the people he saved. We have decided to start with his friends, the people who mean so much to him and guess what Shawn, you were the first on our list. I am the Phantom who will be your Grim Reaper! AHAHAHAHAHA!" She said laughing. I then put all of my anger behind the blade and when I came so close, Virus took my wrist and moved it over to the side of her head where I stabbed right into the ground. When I did she brought her head up and bit into my arm.

"GYAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed as blood began pouring into the snow. Once that happened Virus grabbed me by my throat and lifted me up in the air. She then threw me across the baseball stadium and slowly began walking up to me. I looked at my wounds as the holes started to form into circles. I know knew the error I had made.

"You have about ten minutes left before my spell kills you. My spell begins to dry out your blood and then when a good percentage of your blood has dried up it starts to affect your organs and begin a rapid decay. Once the heart is affected you will die and Travis will despair giving into Dragon and becoming a Phantom. The only way my spell will be dispelled is if I die in the next ten minutes. But that requires me to die in ten minutes and with this barrier up your friends will not know you are here until you have already died and when that happens I will lure the Ancient Mage and kill him too. I'm sure losing two close friends should make anyone despair don't you agree?" She said to me.

The pain rushing through my body was intense and no matter what I did I wasn't going to be able to get any help. I started thinking my last words in my head, "I've always been reckless. I've always acted out and annoyed the people around me. I know I'm not the best person and I realize my flaws. These past six months I've done my best to become a better person not just for my friends but for myself. But now everything I worked hard on, all my dreams I had laid out for my life are going to be gone." Virus then stepped on my chest.

"Any final words before you die?" She said.

"At least I get to see my mother once again. I'm happy with the life and friends I was given and with that I say thank you." I said to her as my body began to grow more in pain. In just a second the foot on my chest was then quickly removed and I heard a person's voice.

"Shawn!? Buddy? Hang in there don't die on me!" The voice was Mark as he lifted me up in his arms and took me to the side. I was then placed on the bleachers as I looked up at Mark. "What the hell were you thinking?" He said and I had a hard time responding back. My eyes became heavy and I ended up closing them.

(Travis's Viewpoint)

"What the hell did you do to Shawn?" I said to the phantom. Mark then stood parallel from me as we began circling the phantom.

"Oh is this even the time? Your friend has about five minutes left to live unless you kill me and you want to spend the time gawking? The name is Virus the Zombie Phantom, and I've been sent by my master Wiseman and mistress to kill your friends Travis." Virus said to me.

"Mistress? You're the second phantom to say that." I said concerned. I then looked at Shawn as his body began violently shaking all over the place. "Let's go Mark." I said. We both took out our rings as we got ready for a very quick fight.

" **Driver On, please"**

 **"** **DRIVER ON!"**

As our belts appeared we each took our stances as we scanned both our transformation rings. "I won't be going easy on you Virus." I said.

"Transform!" We said.

 **"** **Flame…DRAGON! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn!"**

 **"** **Set! Open! L-I-O-N! LION!"**

"Now it's showtime." I said.

"It's Lunchtime!" Mark said.

Mark then took out a ring and placed it in the belt.

 **"** **Buffa! B-B-B-BUFFA!"**

A maroon buffalo head appeared on his shoulder as Mark began to rush Virus and I pulled out my swordgun and grabbed a ring and scanned it over my belt.

 **"** **Copy, please."**

Holding onto the swordgun I casted my spell over it as I created a second one. I put one into gun mode and kept the other in sword as I rushed into the fight. Mark had gotten kicked onto the ground and Virus turned around to bring her claws down which I caught with my sword. Virus then stepped into my comfort zone with her mouth opened and I shot multiple bullets at her with the gun. Once she was backed up a bit I dropped my gun and grabbed a ring. I then lifted my leg and kicked Virus away from me as I scanned the ring.

 **"** **Explosion Slash Strike!"**

A purple mana started forming around my blade as I ran at Virus to slice this against her chest. But before I was able to do so another Virus showed up in front of me and my blade had already connected. When that happened the Virus that emerged from her body took the hit and then disappeared after the slash. Virus began to laugh hysterically.

"Want to know something great about Zombies? They maybe weak but we have strength in numbers! With that in mind let's see how you handle fifteen of me!" She said as fourteen more versions of herself surrounded us. "Have fun finding out which one of us is the real one Hahahaha!" I was done with these games as I started noticing Shawn was shaking even more violently before. I took my sword and began slashing at a couple of the Virus clones and they quickly vanished but it gave me enough room to do what I needed to do.

"Mark I'm sorry but I'm taking your kill!" I said to him.

"I don't even care at this point! We need to save Shawn! So go for it!" He assured me.

I then took out another ring and flipped the levers on my belt.

 **"** **Big, please."**

I then casted the spell over my entire sword and poured a lot of my mana into at as my sword turned into a giant claymore, even the hilt was bigger. I then pulled back on the big black thumb and scanned my transformation ring.

 **"** **Flame Slash Strike."**

A fiery dragon wrapped around my blade and I took a stance as the Virus clones began to swarm me. "Finale." I said as I pulled on the trigger and swung in one giant circle lifting my sword and wiped out all the clones and just barely scratching Virus which sent her falling face first on the ground. She was still alive as her body started to get up. But when it did I started walking closer as I swung my blade around over my shoulder and raised it above my head and brought it down onto her head and severed her in half.

"This is funny I thought I couldn't die. Congratulations on beating me but do you think that you were able to save your friend in time? It's already over the time limit; if you look you can see that his body has stopped moving." Virus said. Virus then exploded and I de-transformed as I ran over to my friend's side. Mark had also reverted back as we tried to wake up our friend but nothing was working.

(Shawn's Viewpoint)

I slowly began to open my eyes as everything around me was nothing but bright lights. There was this bench like something you see at a park and I walked over to it as I sat down in it. "Where am I?" I asked as I looked around but couldn't see anything but white. The only thing that was different was the bench which was just your normal wooden color. I then heard a voice that I haven't heard in a long time.

"Hey my baby boy." I looked over my shoulder and I quickly stood up as I saw my mom walking towards me. She had a white robe that covered her entire body and her hair combed down as well as her white skin shining beautifully.

"…Mom…" I said as a tear ran down my face. I quickly ran up to her and wrapped my arms around the woman that I had wanted to see these past three years. I couldn't stop putting more pressure into my hugs as I started bursting into tears. "I've missed you so much mom. I can't tell you how much I've missed you." I said happily. She stroked my hair as she always did whenever I hugged her.

"Shawn I've missed you too." She said as tears fell down her face.

I then let go of her as I looked around. "Where am I? I was fighting Virus and then I got bit and everything went black…Am I dead?" I asked her. She then grabbed my wrist and walked with me back to the bench. I sat on it as she kneeled onto the ground.

"Shawn you have grown up to be such a beautiful young man and I'm so proud of you. I've been watching over you these past three years and I can't tell you how proud I am of you. But this is the last time I'll see you. It's not your time to be here right now. You, Travis Edge, Mark Boger, Robin Meade, Karina Medrano, DJ, and Manuela Urbieta, they all need you. Your journey isn't over yet and before I send you back I wanted to talk to you." She said to me. I was starting to feel more tears coming out.

"But Mom I want to stay with you. I haven't seen you in so long and life has been hard on me without you there. I now have you back." I said to her.

"Shawn, you have a lot to live for. Know this; I will continue to watch over you. I never left your side. You finally have friends that care about you, they treat you like family and I'm so proud for that. I want you to know that I love you with all of my heart. I have to warn you about something that is going to happen. There is a Phantom that will rise and it will be stronger than anything you guys have ever faced. It's a Fallen Angel Phantom named Vanity. The Phantom is extremely dangerous and there is only one way to defeat it. It's buried underground where Travis got his powers. There is a secret entrance that is hidden. Go underground and find the torch that lights the path of the cave. Remove the torch and you will come upon Vanity's tomb. Destroy that tomb and you destroy Vanity. When I send you back I need you to remember this and tell Travis and Mark. Don't let Vanity out no matter what the cost. Can you do that for me son?" She explained.

"Yes mom I can." I said as she hugged me again.

"I will always love you. Now go back and see your friends." She said as she began to walk backwards from me. I reached out my hands as I didn't want her to leave.

"DON'T GO MOM! Come back with me! MOM!" I cried out to her as everything around me went dark.

I woke up to see myself in Travis's bedroom at DJs. I lifted my body and there was some pain on my right arm. I looked at it to see bandages wrapped around it. On the bandages were my friends signatures and wishful words in hopes that I'll get better. I looked around the room as I saw Mark passed out in the desk chair next to me. I then slowly reached over and touched Mark's knee. This startled him.

"OH? WHOA? WHO'S THERE?! Don't mess with me I got the Mayo." He said jumpy while holding a bottle of mayo like a weapon.

"It's just me Mark." I said to him.

"Oh. You scared me. How are you feeling?" He asked.

"My right arm is sore. Other than that I'm feeling a lot better." I responded back.

Travis came in the door to see me awake and I said hello to him. "Hey buddy I'm happy your back with us. You gave us a heart attack, your heart was barely beating and Mark had to use up a lot of his mana to save you." He said. I then looked at Mark.

"How much mana did you use?" I asked worried.

"Let's not worry about that. Let's focus on what's important like the fact that you are alive and well now." He said to me. He had a small worrisome look on his face when he said it though. Travis had called everyone in and the rest of my friends came rushing in and swarmed the bed. All of them excited to see me.

"Shawn! I'm so glad you're okay!" Robin said as she hugged me.

"Welcome back sir. We missed you." DJ said as she reached for my hand and shook it.

"You scared the hell out of us when Mark flew you back here in his arms. Don't ever do that again." Manuela said to him sternly.

"When you get better we should totally go out to the buffet it will be my treat." Karina said to me.

I looked around the room as all of my friends were talking over each other to me and excited to see me. I then looked up at the ceiling, "Wasn't there something I was supposed to tell them? Shit I know it was important but I can't remember now." I said as I tried to remember. I then ignored it as I got up and bear hugged everyone as we enjoyed the moment we had together. "Your right mom I do have something to do and I'm happy that I have friends who are here for me." The rest of that day was us playing board games, watching movies, and just chilling out. Mark even made a huge dinner for us that night to celebrate my recovery and this time I was not going to ruin the mood that we were all in.


	7. Lies and Deceit Part 1

Author's Note: Hey Guys! It's been rough writing since my last upload and these next few Wizard Chapters are going to be pretty long because they are Character Building Chapters. This is going to be a two part story arc of Robin and Beast. There is a thing at the last part of this chapter that deals with Beast's backstory and I will be getting to that in a couple of chapters from now so don't worry about that. Next chapter is going to be more Robin focused since I wasn't able to give this one chapter entirely to her. I will be working on Chapter 10 of Wizard and not Deadman Wonderland. That's going to be put on hold for a bit because I feel like I'm not doing a good job at writing Deadman. I'm hoping to get the next chapter up in the next 3-4 weeks since these chapters are going to be huge and I'm working like 40 hours a week as well. Enjoy this chapter!

* * *

(Robin's Viewpoint)

It was January 10th 2015 about seven in the morning. I had just stopped at Starbucks to get some coffee for me and my mother since it was going to be a long day at work…Again. I normally get a French vanilla latte with two espresso shots and my mom normally gets something black with two creamers. I was wearing a tan suit with a white undershirt and matching pants with black shoes and my badge attached to my hip. I was just pulling into the police station in the downtown area and got out of my car as I carried the drinks up the steps. I took out my badge and swiped it in the card reader as the door on the side of the building beeped and I walked inside. I took the elevator up to the second floor as I walked to the dispatch room. I walked out into a grey floor and wall hallway and in just a few feet was a wooden door with a keypad on it that I punched the codes in and walked in. Inside were a few police officers in their blue uniforms that greet me every time they see me.

"Hey there Robin! You buy me coffee?" Officer Blake said. He was white with bald head and a muscular build with brown eyes.

"Ha! No! This is for mo—Ah the boss." I said catching myself. I always seemed to have a hard time calling mom my boss and I would think that I would get over it by now having worked together for five years.

"You should be glad she didn't hear you say that, haha. She would've slapped you upside your head." Blake said jokingly. I walked up behind him and shoved his head a bit.

"I'm working on it Blake. It's a bit difficult for me." I said. I then walked over to the shelf next to the door I came in looking for the log in book so I could clock in for work. I was having a bit of a hard time finding it.

"Blake you know where the log book is? It never seems to be anywhere around here." I said to him. I was looking in the small room we were in and how there were binders everywhere, papers not organized, and a bunch of junk thrown all over the place. "We really need to clean up here. Who the hell lets it get this messy?" I said getting irritated. I then looked over by the computer on the other side of the room and found the binder. Blake during this entire time was talking to a customer about Parking Ticket information. He then hung the phone up and started to talk to me.

"I'm so sorry about the mess. Michael was supposed to clean it up before he left his shift an hour ago and I guess he didn't do it. I'll clean it up since I have nothing to do. Oh hey I have that report for you on the missing ten children last year. I've got to say that it's great that the boy Travis is okay as well as Karina. It's a nasty thing about what happened to them out in those woods. To be honest I've been a resident here for twenty five years and never knew we had an underground cave." He said as he handed me a folder. I opened it up to see something about Amber Wild, aka Medusa.

"Thanks so much for the file. I'm going to take this upstairs and give mo—shit, boss her coffee. Were you able to find anything else on the other missing people from the cave exploration?" I asked Blake. He then remembered something as he pulled another file out of the drawer.

"Oh yes I did. This file has everything you'll need to know on a specific girl named Elizabeth Woodruff. This one a lot of people are kind of hoping stays cold. Her arrest record, crimes, behavior, a lot of stuff just screams in a megaphone psycho." He said with a worried look on his face. I took the file and coffees and walked out of the room after signing the log in book.

I went to the elevator and rode it upstairs. Once upstairs the hallway was designed just like the floor below but at the end of it was temporary holding cells one that Travis was in during the bank heist with Arachnid. "It's been a bit under a year since then huh?" I thought to myself. Remembering what Travis had done for me and my mother was something we would never forget. I've kept Travis's identity a secret from mom so that he wouldn't have to have the whole world know his secret. Mom loves to speak highly of people and if she knew that the Ring Bearing Wizard was Travis and someone I had been visiting a lot over the year, the paparazzi will be all over him.

I finally had gotten up to the door that had my mother's name on it. "Chief Sarah Meade." I said. Mom normally has me call her Sally, but after the Arachnid Phantom fight it went back to its original name which was Sarah. I then knocked as she allowed me to enter into the room. Mom was running all over the room trying to get files and stuff together. "Hey Chief, I got you some coffee for the day." I said as I placed the drink down on her desk. Her office was a bit bigger than Dispatch and it was all for her.

"I'm sorry Officer Robin I have to show up to the court house and I totally forgot that I needed to be at the meeting today. Thank God the courthouse is three blocks from here. You can use my office to do whatever you need. Thanks for the coffee." She said as she picked up the coffee and dashed out the door. I was kind of hoping to talk to her about the cold cases I had received to gather some insight, but good luck on that happening.

I walked over to the desk on the other end of the room and placed my files down as I started to look at them. On the corner of this brown desk was a picture of me in high school when I started writing the school newspaper. I had brought home a trophy for County School Best Paper. "I wish I never became a cop. I never wanted this job. I wanted to be a news anchor or a journalist. I think the only thing keeping me here is so you can be happy." I said looking at my mother in the photo with her arms around me and this giant smile on her face. The photo was taken after my dad had died of pancreas cancer. At the time I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I had thoughts of journalism because of Dad. But after he passed and I won the award, I gave up on that dream.

Straight out of high school I trained to work with law enforcement, my mom forced me into it. I never told her I was against it because I knew she wouldn't listen. "It was just so easy for us to live together when dad was around. Now it feels like when dad died, so did you mom." I said looking at the photo. I had a tear fall down my face as I wiped it away and looked back at the files in front of me. I started to flip through Elizabeth Woodruff, "I'll look through the Amber Wild file with Travis later. I think he might want to know what's in here." I said as I put the file to the side.

I opened the Woodruff file and saw the basic information page that had the photo of a black girl's face with this messed up crazy hair. The girl looked like she did a lot of drugs and was a bit hideous to look at. I looked at her bio. "5'4, 122 pounds, parent's gave up custody, vanished during the cave exploration, has three charges for petty theft, five charges for theft, eight charges for assault, ten charges for drug use/paraphernalia, three charges for breaking and entering, four charges of prostitution, two of them caught by a police officer that was undercover, and is labeled clinically insane in the state of Ohio by Magistrate Bland as of July 2010." I then kept flipping through pages of her file that was more than 25 pages. I then realized that she looked a bit familiar.

"I think I remember her from somewhere. Oh yea she was the one Travis had found back when he got Hurricane Dragon. She was terrorizing Manuela and DJ when Travis was with me running around town patrolling." I said remembering that scene. I then looked at her entire record spending most of my time trying to study her and find out what I needed to know. "She said her name was Gremlin. But she didn't want to fight Travis? I wonder what she has planned for him." I said shifting through the papers. Suddenly I heard the door open and when I looked up I saw my mother and she wasn't happy for some reason.

"Chief? What's up you don't look so good. Did something happen down at the courthouse?" I asked. She stormed over and grabbed the files out of my hands.

"I need you to stop looking into the missing cave exploration people. We just had three new cases come up and I need you to spend time on this." She said sternly.

"Um…Yea sure. Oh I was looking into the missing people and I can tell you for sure that two of them Amber Wild and Elizabeth Woodruff might be alive. I've seen both of them in the past month and I was-." I was interrupted as the folders were tossed into the trash next to her.

"You won't need to look into this anymore. This case has now become closed. The missing people have returned home and are fine. I need you to get onto these three cases. Also get out of my office I need some alone time." She demanded.

"Um yea chief I can give you some time. Did the coffee help? Should I get more?" I asked feeling like I was being backed into a corner.

"The coffee? Oh yes it helped. Now get out of my office." She said rudely. I just bowed my head and walked out and when the door closed I looked back at the trash can with the files as I grabbed the files on the desk near the door.

"What happened at the courthouse?" I wondered. I looked down at the files as I began to study them and look them over.

(Travis's Viewpoint)

I was sitting in the living room playing a chess game with Mark, we had spent an entire hour in this one game. "Check bitch." Mark said as he put his bishop in line with my king. He then hit the clock that we used to keep time. He had ten minutes left on his and I had thirteen.

"Ooh that's kind of daring move you got going there buddy. Thanks for the bishop though!" I said as I slid my Queen over and captured his piece. "Check." I said to him. He then looked to see if he could get out of the check but realized he had cornered himself in without any way to stop the check. "…Mate!" I said to him. He put his hands on top of his head and threw it back.

"Nooooo! I almost had you!" He said and then began laughing. We shook hands as he got up. "Well I'm hungry time to go fishing." He said.

"Fishing? The water here is not safe to eat the fish? Where are you going to go fishing?" I asked him as he walked up to the door and then quickly stopped.

"WAIT? What?! I can't fish here?!" He said surprised.

"The closest is probably Grand Rapids at least that's where I hear a lot of people go to fish." I said to him.

"I don't have a lot of mana to fly. Maybe I'll go look for some Phantoms or Ghouls." He said as he walked out the door a bit sad.

I then heard a noise like something met a circulating saw in DJ's little office where he makes rings. I got up to check on how things were going. I walked up to the door to see Shawn finally taking off his safety goggle and DJ sitting next to him. "So I just use sandpaper to make the edges smooth so it can fit into the ring holder?" He asked DJ. I stood there with a bright smile on my face.

"Yep. You're getting better at making rings. Oh hey Travis how was the game?" DJ said looking at me.

"I beat him…Again. I don't think out of the fifteen games we've played he's ever come close to beating me. How's the ring making thing going Shawn?" I asked him.

Shawn looked at me with a huge smile on his face," I'm really excited about this one! The dragon on this is wearing a tie! Oh have you tried the last one I made? It's the one with a dragon yelling with lines coming out of his mouth." He asked me. I then walked over to the Wizard Chest and picked up the light blue ring with the description he was talking about.

"Actually I haven't. I should give it a shot." I said as I slid it on my finger and scanned the ring.

" **Voice, please."**

I then for the first time scanning a new ring noticed that I could do multiple different things with this. But the moment I released the ring I felt something swelling up my mouth and when I opened I began sending out a loud concentrated noise at the glass coffee table and when the sound hit the table, all of the glass shattered and the chess board fell onto the ground. I quickly closed my mouth cancelling the spell. "Oh shit. I let out a supersonic sound wave. That could be useful in a fight. But I also noticed that I could do other things with this spell than that." I said to Shawn.

"Well since you got the Drago-Timer I've noticed that you can do a wide variety of things that you couldn't do before, even in your base forms. Like you couldn't manipulate fire, gravity, wind, or water the way you normally would. So maybe with all of the power you have, the more you are able to do." Shawn said to me. I looked down at the ring thinking about what he said.

"Maybe your right. This Voice Ring is pretty sweet. I think you did a great job making it." I said to him with a smile. He then tossed me the new one. It was a hinted orange with a dragon wearing a tie.

"Let's try this one." I said putting the Voice Ring in the chest and sliding the new one on.

 **"** **Dress Up, please."**

A red spell circle appeared in front of me and then turned sideways through me as a black suit and pants appeared on me with a red tie and white button down undershirt replaced my normal attire. I then tugged on the collar, "Ooh fancy." I said. Shawn was a bit sad.

"I was hoping it would do something as good as the Voice Ring." He said. I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"This thing will do great at helping me. Don't feel sad I will put this to great use." I said to him. Shawn then gave me a hug and then I heard a phone ring.

"Oh shoot the new movie I wanted to see is in two hours. I have to head out!" Shawn said as he ran out of the house leaving me with DJ.

"Where's Manuela?" DJ asked me.

"I don't know she wasn't sleeping next to me when I woke up this morning. I think she is out and about in the town. Shawn has been doing a great job with ring making, I think it helps that he has a good tutor like you." I said back.

DJ briefly smiled, "Well shucks you're going to make me blush." He chuckled. I then noticed a purple ring in the corner of his work area.

"What's that ring over there?" I asked. DJ grabbed it and shoved it in his shirt pocket.

"You don't need to worry about this one. It was a dud." He said as he kept his hand over his shirt pocket.

"A dud? He seems a bit off with how he is keeping his hand over his pocket." I thought. I then heard a knock on our door. "Come in!" I called out. I then saw Robin walk through the door with three folders in her arms and she was pissed.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS CRAP! She seriously wants me to work on these DAMN things!" Robin said furiously as she slammed the folders on the shattered glass. "Huh? What happened to the coffee table?" She said quickly dropping her negative emotion she was in. She then looked up at us, "Holy crap Travis you look ho-uh…Ahem…Good. You look really good… In that…Um…Suit. I'll just stop talking now." She said a bit flushed. I grabbed the broom and dustpan from the work area and began sweeping up the glass. Robin then helped me move the wooden frame of the table outside and DJ replaced the table with a black collapsible table from the closet. Robin then put her folders on that.

"So what happened to that other table?" She asked me.

"I tried out a new spell ring and I didn't know it would destroy the glass." I answered back.

"I'm going to miss that table." DJ said sadly.

"So what is going on with you?" I said. As I used the Dress Up Ring to go back to my normal attire which consisted of a red marbled shirt and blue jeans with my cross necklace.

"Ugh! My mother is being a pain in my ass! She told me to drop the Missing People from the cave exploration and then took the folders from me. I don't know what got into her. She then threw three other cases on me and they are all on getting evidence for a damn trial that is happening next week on these kids who broke into the In and Out Gas Station over there on South Main street! That's not even my department, that's for the other officers not someone of my ranking." She said as she sat down and put her hands over her face.

DJ brought a glass of water to her. "Thanks DJ." She said trying to calm down.

I sat next to her, "That does suck. Maybe I can help you with it?" I offered.

"No I already have someone working on gathering the evidence." Robin said taking a sip of water. I then heard DJ turn on the TV and the news was on, and this made Robin flip.

"Um Travis, Robin, you two might want to come look at this." DJ said worried. The two of us turned around and faced the giant TV in the corner and there were ten people standing in front of the courthouse that were all the missing people from the cave exploration, and Sarah Meade was standing at a podium in front of them all. Chief Sarah then spoke.

"Hello everyone. Thank you all for gathering here today. About sometime 10-11 months ago we had ten people from the ages of 14 and up go missing during a cave exploration. It is my civic duty as your Chief of Police to let you know that not more than ten minutes ago most of the people you see here before you today turned themselves in and had escaped the clutches of the people who made them go missing. A few of these people have been living amongst us during the past year with their fellow escapees. One of them which is this girl Elizabeth Woodruff, was able to tip off Travis Edge where they were held captive earlier this morning. Let's give a warm applause for these people as we are glad to have them back."

The moment the Chief stopped talking everyone erupted in a delightful roar and ran up to the people as they shook their hands and swarmed around them. The ten people acted like normal humans but all three of us knew something was up. "This isn't right. Amber Wild is dead; Manuela told me that Casey took care of that. Karina is out doing stuff and the outfit she is wearing is different from this one on screen. As well as I'm right here." I said confused.

"This doesn't make any sense. Mom is taking all of the glory?! I'm the one who put all the hard work and effort into that case!" Robin said pissed.

"There is definitely something fishy going on here. It has to be the work of a Phantom. But that would mean that one of the 11 people there has to be the Phantom, but we don't know what kind of Phantom nor what its abilities are." DJ said. We then heard a cellphone ring and the ring came from Robin's phone. Robin had a more pissed off look on her face.

"If you answer that phone put it on speaker." I said to her as I saw on her giant touch phone saying "Mother."

She then answered the phone.

"Mom what the hell is wrong with you! You just took all of the credit of that case on your own! Plus how can Travis be there if he is standing right in front of me?!" She yelled.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Travis is standing right here. You need to calm down." Sarah said sternly.

"I'm not going to calm down mother! That was a dirty thing you just did! Plus the person there you're calling Travis has to be an impostor! It has to be! I know because the REAL Travis is right here and you can talk to him!" She screamed back.

"I have had enough of your disrespect young lady. If I have to hear about this one more time I will have your badge and gun. You need to stop with all of this foolishness. You're obviously stressed out from overworking this week. Maybe you need to take a break from work for a few days." She said arguing back. Then Sarah hung up the phone. When I looked back up at Robin her entire face went from angry to emotionless. She then stood up and stormed out the door.

"ROBIN WAIT!" I called out to her.

She stopped at the door, "Don't Travis. I'm going to go deal with my mother. I'll be right back." She said as she slammed the door. I then looked at DJ.

"I have to go after her she's not thinking straight." I said. As soon as I started moving DJ grabbed my shoulder.

"Travis I understand how you feel, but this isn't your problem. This is not only a police work issue, but a family issue as well. Besides what could you do in this situation? The supposedly real you is already with Chief Sarah, you showing up could cause more harm than good. We just need to trust in them that things will turn out for the better." DJ said. I was a little frustrated as I had a bad feeling that something was going to happen. I then went over to the Wizard Chest and grabbed one of my Plamonsters.

"In case anything goes wrong Garuda will let me know. Something is going on and I know it has to be a Phantom." I said as I scanned the ring.

 **"** **Garuda, please."**

I watched as my red familiar put itself together once it was done I put my spell ring in the slot on its chest, "I need you to follow Robin. If anything of a Phantom shows up I'll be there. I'll be watching you through Karina's mystic ball. Now go!" I said as I ran to the front door and opened it as it flew off into town.

-Six Hours Later-

(Mark's Viewpoint)

I was walking in the downtown area hungry as hell. A lot of people were giving me weird looks whenever I asked for food. I saw this old couple walking down the street in front of one of the tattoo parlors, "Oh hey oldies! I'm hungry can you help me? I'm looking for these grey stone like creatures with yellow or purple lines all over their body! Do you know where I can find some?" I asked with a hopeful expression. The man looked at me confused to hell.

"Umm I don't know what you're talking about but there is a small restaurant down the street here with some grey on the building. It's called Corner Grill." He said unsure of what to tell me. I put my hands on my head in an irritated fashion as I thanked the couple and started stumbling away.

"This isn't good. If I don't get any mana into me soon I'll become a Phantom! I can feel Chimera getting hungrier." I said under my breath. I finally got up to the alley that was next to Finder's Music Store and I laid up against the wall and slowly fell to the ground. "Am I going to die today?" I said looking at the ground.

"Hey Mark is that you?" I heard a familiar voice. I looked up to see Manuela running up to me. She was wearing these tight navy blue jeans with a white dress shirt that had ruffles around the wrists and a gold chain necklace on with a pair of normal looking black tennis shoes. Her wardrobe since she started living with us was some really expensive and beautiful clothes. Mostly because her income was her winning at these contests for singing that happened in town weekly. People pay a lot of money to just come and see her and it's caused one of the bars to make enough money to get a bigger place where they put a stage inside to have singing competitions for the people in the city. One where Manuela tops first all the time and she normally brings home about five hundred a week. The bar owner said when she turned 18 he would have her work for him, it's a shame he's going to have to wait for about two years.

"Oh hey Manuela. Have you seen any Ghouls around or Phantoms? I'm fricking starving!" I said complaining to her. She sat up against the wall next to me.

"No. Why are you hungry? I thought Phantoms and Ghouls could keep you satisfied for two weeks if you didn't use up your mana for fighting?" She asked concerned.

"Well when we saved Shawn during the Zombie Phantom fight, I poured a lot of mana into healing Shawn. He was hanging onto his life by a thread because of that virus. The only way we were going to save him is if I pushed myself over the limit and I wasn't going to see one of my close friends die. I never told him what I did because I didn't want him to worry plus I thought that I would be in another fight real soon, but there haven't been any Phantom sightings or Ghouls since then. This is bad for me because I will despair and give rise to Chimera if I don't get food in the next twelve hours." I said to her. Manuela then grabbed my arm and started tugging me up off the ground.

"We need to go now! Travis can probably do something about that. He gives Karina mana; maybe if we borrow the ring she is wearing we can transfer some of Travis's mana to you." She said as I got up off the ground. I hadn't thought of that idea so we started moving but when we did and got to the corner of Wooster and Main, we saw Robin. "Let's go ask Robin for a ride. We can get there quicker that way." Manuela suggested. We started moving to Robin's position but then saw her looking around frantically like she was scared while holding her arm.

"Something's wrong here." I stated. "Manuela stay here, I'm going to go check things out." I said to her. But she had other plans.

"No I'm going with you." Manuela said.

"Are you crazy? If there is a something like Phantom's or Ghouls you could get hurt." I told her.

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean you have to protect me. Travis has been teaching me how to fight these past six months in case I should run into danger. He saw that potential in me when I fought off the Incubus Phantom. I can take care of myself just like you guys." She said being persistent. I ended up just letting her win.

"Okay but if it gets to hectic I need you to run got it?" I said to her.

"Sure." She said with a smile. We then ran across the street as we headed to the alleyway and when we got there I saw Robin limping down the end of the alley. "Mark look at the ground." Manuela said as we saw a trail of blood that was clearly Robin's.

"Oh no this isn't good." I said as we looked up to see a woman other than Robin standing at the end of the alley. This person was Robin's mother, Sarah, also known as Chief of Police. She raised her gun up at Robin. "ROBIN GET OUT OF THER-." But before I had chance to finish my sentence a couple of bullets left the gun and landed themselves inside Robin who after reacting to the bullets hitting her, slowly fell to the ground and landed face first. "RUN NOW!" I said to Manuela as I started to shove her from the scene and just in time for us to barely get shot at by Sarah.

We quickly began to run down the street and immediately took a right as we ran into the first building we saw and it had a staircase that led upstairs and we got inside as we hid underneath the staircase and I kept an eye out for Sarah in case she was tracking us. After about a minute we saw Sarah standing in front of the door and I put my hand over Manuela's mouth as we stay covered from the Chief's sight and she started to look around inside the building but couldn't see us and then began walking down the street. "Stay right here Manuela. I'm going to see if the coast is clear." I said as she kept her hands over her mouth. I could see tears like a waterfall roll down her face as we watched our friend get shot to death by her own mother.

I sidled around the staircase and peeked my head from the corner to see if there was anyone around. I then walked up to the door and locked it from the inside and then went back to Manuela. "We are going to stay here for about thirty minutes and then we'll leave." I said to her as we stayed huddled under the staircase. My heart felt so heavy and my eyes watery as Manuela put her face into my chest and began crying as quietly as she could but we both knew that wasn't going to be possible at all.

"W-W-Why…? Why…Why did sh-s-sh-she k-k-kill Robin? It doesn't make sense! That's her own daughter…AHHHH!" Manuela sobbed and I just couldn't keep my tears quiet any longer. I then had to let Travis know.

"We need to tell Travis." I said as I tried to hold back my tears and took out my phone and started texting him. I sent the text to Travis. He quickly texted me back.

" _I know. Garuda was watching the surrounding area. DJ and I as well as Karina and Shawn are a bit broken down right now. But are you okay? Is Manuela with you? Wherever you guys are stay there."_ Travis texted.

I texted him back that we were on the corner of Wooster and Main underneath the building with the glass door where you can see the stairs that lead upstairs and into the Bridal Shop that was closed. We had locked the door so Sarah couldn't get in and hurt us. Travis then texted back,

" _Okay stay there. I'll be there in a second. I'm going to teleport outside the door be ready for me."_ I told him okay and in just a flash of light Travis used the Teleport Ring and showed up at the door. He knocked on the door and we emerged from our hiding space. Manuela quickly ran to the door and hugged Travis as she kept started to dry her tears onto his shirt.

"We need to see if we can save Robin. I can teleport her to the hospital, she might still be able to live." Travis said. We quickly ran back to the scene of the crime and when we got there, the body and all evidence of the murder was gone.

"How can this be? We just saw Robin get shot eight minutes ago. How is it that a stream of blood and a body are gone that fast?" Manuela said surprised. We then ran up to where Robin was shot at to see if there might be anything that was left behind but there was nothing.

We then heard a girl chuckle up at the end of the alley but before I had a chance to see the person she turned and left. But Travis had an idea of who it could be. "…Amber?" He said. He then quickly ran to the end of the alley.

"Travis wait! It's too dangerous!" I said to him. But when he got up there he looked around and then came running back to us. "Did you see anything?" I asked him.

"No the person who was there vanished. But it looked like Amber…I mean Medusa." He said back.

"That's not possible Travis. Medusa died getting an entire factory plummeting on her body. I doubt anyone or anything could survive that." Manuela said to him. Travis then looked around as he got ready to scan his Teleport Ring.

"I'm getting us out of here. We are going back to DJ's to plan something but I don't think we should be here much longer." He said. But then I heard a zip noise come from behind me and a small dart hit Travis in the chest and one hit Manuela in the back. I looked back to see who fired it but before I moved my head I felt a dart hit my shoulder and when I looked over I saw a group of people standing at the end of the alley but I had blacked out before I could get a good look at them.

"…Was this all a trap?" I thought as I as passed out.

-Seven Hours Later-

I gently awoke to the sound of dripping water. I was suspended off the ground and hanging on a wall like some portrait with metal cuffs and chains. I looked around my environment to see nothing but a cellar. It was dark so it was hard for me to properly tell what was around me. "Where am I?" I said trying to wake up. I then heard a door swing open. A light illuminated the room with torches that surrounded the entire room and I had a better look at what was actually a cellar. The walls were running with streams of water and the floor was about four inches high with it. I then looked at the door to see Travis standing there and in his arms was a piece of Manuela's shirt covered in blood. Travis also had a huge smile on his face.

"Ha…Ha…Ha. It's so easy to harm people who think they feel safe around you. It's great to watch that expression they give when the last thing they see is their greatest friend becoming their most dangerous enemy. The thought of it all makes me all giddy on the inside, and now the last person left to be killed is you, my childhood friend. Maybe I'll burn your body with all these torches hanging on the wall. Or maybe I'll bash the back of your head in that wall so if should anyone find you they will think you went mad and committed suicide. You're my best friend so I should give you an appropriate ending of your life." Travis said to me.

I started to chuckle, "Oh God. Chimera must be hungry as hell because I almost thought you were the REAL Travis for a second there. So why don't you show me who you really are…Phantom." I said quickly dropping my comedic act and turned into something more serious.

"Heh. How did you know I wasn't Travis? I'm quite curious to know." The Phantom said as a purple mist formed around it.

The Phantom had a white furry face and white furry chest, with black arms, gold nails, a red left leg, a blue right leg with black nails on its feet. In the middle of the furry face was a yellow line in the form of a smile and eyes with a white question mark in the middle of the eyes. The creature had yellow spikes running down its back as well.

"I am the Phantom of Disguise and Deceit. My name is Doppel. As you can guess I'm a Doppelganger who's powers are to turn objects into living entities. For instance, when I disguised as Chief of Police Sarah Meade and had that press conference live, the ten people who went missing were Ghouls disguised as the missing people." Doppel said to me with a cracky voice.

"I knew it wasn't Travis because I know that Travis hates it when people do monotone things like laughing the way you did. Also Travis would never even if he had to act it out, would pull off an acting performance of killing people he considers close. He would never be able to harm his friends with such a serious expression. Just the thought of doing so would tear him up on the inside." I said back to him. I then made another comment. "Also when you walked inside here, you messed up on his appearance in a big way." I said sounding snarky. This put Doppel in an awkward spot.

"I don't know what you mean everything was perfect on his disguise. Wait?! You knew the moment I walked into the room this entire TIME?!" Doppel said a bit fearful.

"Yea and this is how I knew. Your neck when you impersonated him. Travis wears a Christian Cross necklace that was given to his parents before they died. That necklace was given to him to remember his infinite potential he has inside. It's become the hope that was leftover by his parents which is why he is able to fight through the hell he's been thrown in since he became Wizard. I should know because the REAL Travis told me. Now if you don't mind I'm quite hungry and I don't feel like dying today." I said back to him with a huge cocky smile on my face.

Doppel was thinking I was bluffing. "Your hilarious you know that. You're handcuffed to that wall. I know all about you Mark Boger. You're Masked Rider Beast, the Primordial Mage, and if you don't consume mana you'll despair and give rise to Chimera that lives inside your belt. Seven hours have passed and you only have five more. It would be extremely dangerous for you to transform at the hunger stage you're in that you just might turn into a Phantom before you even transform. So don't make threats that you can't back up. I also was given permission to kill you. Your Phantom requires consuming our kind in order to thrive. So if we kill you now, Chimera will go back to his forever long slumber. But I'm not going to kill you that's what mooks like Ghouls are for." He said as he snapped his fingers and five Ghouls entered the giant drippy cellar. Each one had spears and when Doppel was at the door he talked with his back behind me. "Oh thanks for the tip on making me be able to impersonate people better. I wonder how Travis who is caring for his wounded girlfriend would react to seeing you kill the thing that he loves. I know _she_ will be happy to know that the bitch is removed from his side." Doppel said laughing evilly as he walked out the room.

I heard the door close and lock and then I saw the Ghouls slowly approach me. I started squirming violently from the shackles. "Come on just a little bit more and I can get free." I said. During the entire time Doppel was talking to me I was having the streaming water coming down the walls and onto my hands so I could slip them out easier. I then looked at the Ghouls who were getting closer to me.

"Okay guys look I know it's bad that I've killed about over five dozen worth of your comrades but hey I'm willing to let bygones be bygones if you just spare my life. I mean come on a hungry boy has to eat am I right?" I said to them. The Ghouls then stopped moving as the Ghoul in the far back began walking to the front slowly and he had green scars on his body instead of the orange or yellow ones. "Jeffrey is that you? Ah boy I swear you've lost that body fat really well. Uhh why are you raising that spear? I'm a bit afraid of pointy things." I said in a joking tone as the Ghoul lifted a spear up and before thrusting it into me I slipped my hand out of one cuff and wrapped my legs around the neck of the spear a couple inches under the blade. I had locked the spear from moving and used my legs to yank it out of his hands which I quickly grabbed it and stabbed it into the chains that held my last hand on the wall. I then fell to the ground on my butt. The green scarred Ghoul began resonating a glow and these thin cords shot out of its scars and grabbed the other Ghoul's around it and bring it in. The other Ghouls started to get consumed by this one which then got bigger by about two feet and muscular, mostly around its arms.

"Oh shit. That's disturbing to look at." I said as I took the spear and tried to stab it. The enhanced Ghoul grabbed the blade and yanked it out of my hand. When it did I watched it break the pole in half and throw them to the side. "Since when could Ghouls consume others to become something more hideous?" I wondered. The Ghoul then breathed loudly as it punched me sending me flying across the room. I then after falling to the ground saw green air like Travis's Hurricane Style gives off when it's about to fly in the air emanate off its body. I then had a quick flashback.

"MARK RUN! IT'S A MONSTER! RUN BABY RUN!" I heard my mother say after I awoke from the hospital after being sent there thanks to Travis's beating. I then had another quick flashback to my Dad getting me out of the hospital.

"MOM! DAD WE NEED TO GET MOM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! SHE'S BACK IN THERE WITH THAT THING! WE NEED TO SAVE HER! MOM!" I said pounding on my dad's back and when I looked up I saw a Ghoul that looked just like this one walking towards the door and then turning into a green mist and flying away. It wasn't until moments later did the thing catch up to us and strike down my dad in front of my very eyes. I remembered hiding until the thing finally left and went back to my dad's body as he gave me a black square ring with the grey door on it that my Driver's On Ring.

"Go son…Be safe…Run Ma-r-r-k…" My dad said as his head fell backwards and died. I then snapped back to my current situation.

"So we finally meet again. I've waited eight years for this moment and was wondering when I would find you. I don't care if I die today. Today at this exact moment I will avenge my parents for what you did to them." I said to the creature that slowly started walking towards me. I reached into my pocket and raised my hand in a diagonal position over my chest as I put on my ring.

" **DRIVER ON!"**

I then slid on my Transformation Ring and Chimera began to talk in my head. "MARK DON'T! You might not have enough mana to summon me." He said warning me. I then raised my hand up in the air.

"I'm asking you to let me do this Chimera. If I don't I can never move on from my parent's death. But don't worry if you can hold on just for two minutes you will have the biggest meal you ever had." I said with a serious tone. "Transform." I said as I did my pose and put the ring in my belt.

" **SET!"**

I then quickly fell to the ground as I felt a writhing pain. "MARK! You won't be able to use any of your Mantle Rings. You only have enough power to do one Saber Strike at best. This is suicide. You need to sto-." Chimera said to me.

"WOULD YOU FUCKING SHUT UP? I'm doing this and I know how much power I have left! This fight is everything to me so you can either help me one shot kill this thing or shut the hell up and let me fight!" I said as I turned the levers on my belt sideways.

" **OPEN! L-I-O-N! LION!"**

A yellow spell circle appeared on the ground and surrounded me as my Lion form appeared and just in time as the monster raised its fist and came to sucker punch me again. I caught it with one hand and had a power struggle to keep it from moving me. I then stood up and used my free hand to summon out my Dice Saber. I then dodged under its arm and raised my sword to cut at its upper area of the arm. I then kept slashing down its arm as it was extremely sensitive to my attacks. "You might be a very beefy Ghoul but you're just a little bitch on the inside. Let us see how much mana you're packing!" I said as I took my Lion Ring and placed it in the Transformation side of my belt.

" **GO! KICK STRIKE!"**

Gold mana began to light up my feet as I did a roundhouse kick into the Ghoul's stomach and I sent it flying across the room and into the wall. The Ghoul then fell onto the ground on its face and I was immediately reverted back to my human form with my sword in my hand still. I started to see cracks form slowly on my body. The Ghoul was still breathing and I began walking towards it. "Still breathing huh? Well thankfully striking you down with my sword will still give me your mana. I'll consume your mana before Chimera consumes me." I said as I stood over its head and raised my sword up. I then felt the pain of the cracks hurting me all over. I then was frozen in place without a lot of strength to deliver the final blow. I then heard the door open and when I looked to see who entered I saw Robin. She was all bruised up and quickly ran up to me as she grabbed my hands.

"Don't give up Mark! Travis needs you right now so you're not dying on us!" She said. She then helped guide my hand down as hard as she could and my sword went right through the back of the Ghoul's neck and the Ghoul exploded into a bunch of green mana that formed my spell circle and hovered right into my belt where a very loud gulp was made and the cracks on my body immediately vanished and my life was back to being mine. "I did it mom and dad. I finally avenged you." I said as I fell to the ground on my knees glad that I was going to keep on living.


	8. Lies and Deceit Part 2

The feeling of cheating death was refreshing and a bit overwhelming. I had a bunch of emotions flowing into me and I didn't get a chance to experience as Robin picked me up off the ground, "Mark we need to go now. Travis and Manuela are in trouble and my mom is trapped in a cell." She said as I got up and we ran out the door. When we ran out I saw hallways of numerous kinds that had these rusted and molded cells.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked Robin.

"We are under the police station. According to some findings this is where we would hold the extremely depraved people to die. It's been closed off for about thirty years." She said. Robin was holding her arm as some blood had been running down it. I took out a pocket knife and cut the only clean area of my shirt and wrapped it around.

"This should help control the bleeding. Now want to tell me how you got down here? Manuela and I saw you get shot earlier, how is that your still alive?" I asked.

Robin had this weird look on her face, "I've been down here for the past two days. I was leaving the office until I was attacked by a Ghoul and Amber. The weird thing is that Amber just didn't have any reaction to anything. I don't know what it was but she didn't feel like the Amber I know. I could sense no evil presence or that she was even living. But when I awoke I was chained in one of these cells and my mother was chained in a cell directly across from me. I was able to escape by using the water from the damaged pipeline in the cells to slip out but I couldn't open the cell my mother was in. I don't know how to get out of here either I couldn't find an exit since this place is like a maze." She said.

While she was talking I walked up to a few cells and tried to open the doors and none of them would budge. I tried a few more and then I put my hands over my belt and reached inside to grab my Dice Saber. I tried slashing at the doors and I was only putting small scratches on them. "These doors need a key in order to get in or out. They may be rotted but they are extremely sturdy. You can't even pick the locks since the lock looks to be extremely complicated and it looks like they take a big key not a small one." I thought to myself.

"Why are you trying to open empty cell doors?" Robin asked me.

"I'm trying to see how to get in and out. Also all of the locks seem too only need one key to open them meaning that if I can find one jail cell key it will open every lock here. How did you get out of your cell?" I asked her.

"Easy I picked the lock. These are rusted old things so picking them with my hairpin is easy." Robin said.

I grabbed a hair pin from my pocket and when I made it into a lock pick I noticed that I couldn't hit any of the mechanics inside. "The lock pick broke. Just like I thought." I said under my breath.

"Mark did you say something?" Robin asked.

"Yea I did." I said as I spun around and rammed my Dice Saber in Robin's chest and slammed her up against the wall. "Die…Ghoul." I said as I ripped my sword out of her and watched as Robin's body morphed into one of the ghouls and exploded in front of me as a yellow spell circle formed from the ashes and went inside my belt.

"You can't pick a lock with a hair pin if the lock is huge. That's something that my old friend taught me years ago. I said as I remembered my old friend from my childhood. I then looked down the opposite end of my corridor that I was in, "Not only is this place a maze, but it's extremely dangerous since Doppel is running around making clones of people I know. I need to find my friends and fast. I'll have to find a way to know who friend or foe is because it seems like the clones can use the memories of the people they replicate." I then ran down the hall looking for my friends.

(Robin's Viewpoint)

I heard water dripping and some splattered on my face as I began to wake myself up. "Ugh. What's going on? Where am I?" I said feeling really groggy. I then looked around to see myself in a damp dark prison cell. I tried to move but I felt chains holding me to the wall. "Shit I can't break out of these." I said as I kept tugging but nothing was working. I looked ahead of me as I saw someone in the cell directly across from me.

"Robin dear is that you?" I heard someone say in pain. I knew the voice as well.

"MOM?! I called out and I heard her chains moving as well.

"Oh my God it's so nice to see you." She said. I had tears run down my face as the lights in the hall turned on and I saw my mother bloodied and clothes torn. I then looked and saw her arm in a weird position. "Mom...What happened to your arm?" I said scared.

"Some monster attacked me on my way to work this morning. I don't know what it was but it knocked me out and when I awoke I was in this cell. I tried to escape but ran into some grey monster that had these bright green scars on its body. I tried to fight it but it dislocated my arm and I was immediately chained up to this cell. I keep blacking out from the pain. But I need to ask you something. Are you the real Robin? Say something that lets me know you are my daughter." She said.

I wanted to say my hatred for her putting me on the force and not letting me pursue my dream job as a reporter, but I couldn't not in the situation we were in. "Why do you think I could be anything than your daughter?" I asked her.

"While I was running around I saw someone who looked like you and she was helping me escape but then disappeared as I met that green scar monster. I can't afford to be tricked again. So tell me something that helps me know that you are real." She said.

"What the hell is this place? How do I even know that the person I'm looking is real? Why don't you say something that lets me know if your my real mother then?" I said to her.

"You will join the police force Robby." Mom said in a depressed tone that she had when dad died.

"But I don't want to. I want to be a reporter. It has always been something that I want." I said back in the same tone I had back then.

"Okay I know it's you. These things don't have the ability to use expression or emotions when talking to us. Now let's figure a way out of-."

"I'm serious mom." I said interrupting her.

"What?" She said a bit shocked. "What did you say?"

I looked up at her so I could stare directly in her eyes. "I said that I don't want to be a reporter! I'm done being told what to do by you! I want to break out and be my own person! I'm tired of you controlling my damn life! I'm 23 damn years old and I can't even feel free to do what I want with my life! Ever since dad died you just chained me down to the ground and expect me to do what you want me to do! Do you know how fucking sick I am of you being so damn controlling? I just swallow everything you give me because I've been scared to fight with you on this! For once in your damn fucking life I want you to be happy with what I want to do BUT NO you have to sit here and treat me like a damn child. News flash mother I'm not a child anymore! I'm a damn adult and when and if we get out of here I'm resigning from the force and moving on with my own life and if you don't want to be a part of it then I don't need you in it!" I said as loud as I could.

"Do you think that it will be that easy to quit? I am your mother and you will do what I say! I don't want you pursuing a job that is boring and ridiculous! You get more pay as a police officer not a damn reporter who can't keep their nose out of people's business! I thought I made this clear last time with you that you aren't going to be a reporter." She screamed at me.

"I DON'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS WHAT YOU WANT MOM! You were even controlling too dad and I'm pretty sure when he died he was happy because he was free from you! Do you want to know why I wanted to be around him and not you? Because he actually treated me like his daughter and not some slave that should follow every order regardless if they like it or not!" I roared at her. My mom then fell silent. I knew I hit a nerve and it shut her down.

"I never knew that I was doing all that." She said softly.

"What?" I asked back as I started to calm down.

"I didn't know I was being controlling. I was just trying to look out for my family. I wanted to keep you all safe. I loved your father very much and I loved you too. Your father's death wasn't an accident, it was real. Your father was working for a Private Investigator and he didn't tell any of us until the night of his death. Your father had such great skills at what he did that a PI needed him to do a job for him. I didn't want you to know because I didn't want you to end up just like him." She said.

"How would you know how great I can be at reporting? It's not like you ever pay attention to me at what I can do. You basically just have me sit behind a desk and look at files and then send me off on mediocre cases that none of the other cops want to do and I don't really get to see any action like you and everybody else. The closest action I ever really got was when you were kidnapped." I said to her.

"And look at what happened that day? If it wasn't for Travis you would be dead right now. So what makes you think that you can survive out there? You have your father's gifts at what he could do. As a mother I have to protect you and keep you safe. It's why I'm so hard on you and seem so controlling. I want you to live your life, not die for it." Mom replied back.

"What you want for me is not living; it's me living in your cage that you made up. I want more for my life. I understand you may have been doing your mother duties but it's time for me to leave your nest. I don't want to be here anymore, I want to go out there and do something more for myself, I want the world to know that I exist. I want the world to know who Robin Meade is. I want to make an impact on the world somehow." I said back to her as tears started to fall down my face.

My mom took some time to process all of this and was silent for a while. I took this time to calm down as I felt like I was shattering on the inside. But after some time passed my mom spook.

"Robin, I'm sorry." She said breathing a bit heavy like she was about to burst into tears.

"For what?" I said back.

"I just…Wanted you to be safe. I wanted you to be happy. I didn't know what I was doing was just pushing you further away. Your father tried to tell me but I just didn't listen because I was so stubborn. I wanted to keep you safe and in order to do so I did things that were terrible to you and I'm sorry. You're right, you should go live your life the way you want to. If we get out of this I will let you choose what you want to do. If you want to go be a reporter for anything, I know someone who will greatly take you in and help you. It might be the fact that we are in a perilous situation and if any of us should die I don't want it our final words to be negative, but I want to be the mother that you can be proud of." She said to me as she started to burst into tears.

"…Do you really mean that?" I said softly. My mother was crying and in the middle of everything that was going on I started to hear footsteps. The footsteps were heavy and the voice I heard was all too familiar.

"Is anyone in here?! Hello!" I heard Travis say. He then was standing in the middle of our cells. "Robin is that you?!" He said as he grabbed the bars and started shaking them. "Damn I can't get in the cell. Have you guys seen Manuela anywhere?" He asked worried as he tried to break into the lock. But nothing he did was working.

"Travis use the Explosion Ring you got from Dark Wizard. It might break open the cell doors." I said to him.

"I wish I could but I'm just barely hanging onto the mana that I have. There is something about this place that is draining mana. This lock is too big for me to pick with anything. Maybe this might work." Travis said as he took a key out of his pocket. "There is a Phantom that had a key and I was able to take it without him knowing. Let's get you two out of here." He said as he unlocked my door as well as my mother's. He started to enter my cell but I told him not to.

"My mother comes first, get her out first." I said. Travis then went inside and I heard my mom grunt in pain and then in seconds the two were in my cell. "How did you get my mom out of her cuffs?" I asked confused.

"He wet the cuffs allowing me to use the liquid to squeeze my hand out." Mom said. I watched as Travis ran to the corner of my cell and scooped up some water in the corner.

"This is going to hurt a bit getting out." He said to me. Travis then poured the water on the cuffs and I wiggled out of my restraints and then we hurried out of the cell. Once we got to the end of the corridor I went up and hugged him from behind. "Thank you for saving us again Travis. It means so much to us!" I said wrapping my arms around his neck giving him a hug. I then noticed something weird.

"We should get going. We have to find Manuela." He said as he started running down the hall but I stopped him.

"Travis…Where is your Driver's On ring?" I said. This then stopped his movement as he slowly turned his head around.

"I did forget that didn't I." He said with a wry smile.

"Travis never forgets that ring. He needs it to activate his Wizardriver." I said to him. "Turn around, now." I demanded. Travis slowly turned around and when he did I saw his belt not wrapped around his waist. "Travis also mentioned that his belt stays wrapped around the waist of his pants and that it never leaves because of his ties with his Phantom." I said feeling fear rise up in my chest.

"You're correct. But being a doppelganger doesn't give me the ability to replicate other people's powers. I would think that you were a dumb bitch but maybe I should just slaughter you two right here and now." Travis said as a purple mist formed around him and his body molded into one of those ghouls with a sword in each hand. The ghoul then opened it's mouth as I saw its breath escape.

"This isn't like any of the ghouls we've faced before. The other's didn't open their mouths nor had the ability to talk." I said as we began to run down the other way of the hall. But when we did we ran towards a door and opened it and then went inside as we closed the door and locked it. We looked around to see ourselves in an giant room but it had tables scattered around with bloodstains and smelled awful.

"What the hell is this room?" My mother said.

"It looks like some sort of torture or experimentation room. I've heard from one of the officers that we had one but I thought it was just a rumor." I said as we began walking around the room. I finally got to a corner where I saw something bright glowing. I took out my touch phone and turned on the flashlight as I walked up to the glowing object. It was an orange magical stone about the size of my hand. "A magical stone?!" I said shocked. We then heard a giant banging on the door as we both turned around. Bent down and pulled up the legs of her pants as she pulled out a gun.

"Just try and come into this room." She said as she took a firing stance.

"Normal bullets don't work on them mom. We can't just kill them by normal means didn't you learn that when we fought Arachnid?" I questioned her.

"If this is where we fall I'm not going down without some type of fight. Plus my daughter is here and it's a mother duty to protect her family." She said. I then looked around for some type of weapon and picked up a couple of the scalpels that were lying around.

"I doubt anything we do will do any good but I agree that I won't go down without a fight." I said to her as I took a boxing like stance.

The banging kept going on as we got to see a dent in the door. Then in one more loud bang the door flew across the room and I saw it going for my mother as I shoved her to ground but I felt a piece of the door hit my shoulder as we fell to the ground and it sent me flying with the door. My body fell to the ground before the door had a chance to pin me up against the wall. I felt my shoulder get dislocated and I was in immense pain.

"Robin!" My mother called out to me as she ran to my side with her gun drawn out. I looked up to see the Phantom walk into the room with the ten missing people standing in a line behind it. The ten people transformed into Ghouls each with spears. The pain was keeping me on the ground.

"GAH! MOM GO! LEAVE ME HERE! AAHHH!" I screamed. But my mother refused to move.

"I'm not leaving you here. I couldn't help save your dad from his death but I might be able to help you." She said as she took a steady stance.

"Ain't this touching. A mother and daughter about to have their final moments." The Phantom said.

"You won't touch my daughter. She is everything to me and I won't let you take her from me." Mom said angrily. "So if you want to get to her you have to go through me you abomination."

"She is your everything huh? It sounds like she is your hope am I right?" The Phantom said.

"Mom. Leave now." I said as I reached out and grabbed her leg as tears began to roll down my face.

Then the Phantom walked over to her as it grabbed her throat and lifted her up off the ground. The Phantom moved faster than my mom could pull the trigger. "If you are a Gate then I can't kill you. But I need you out my way for the time being. The name is Doppel, and I will be taking your daughter's life." The monster said. Doppel then threw my mother away from us on the ground. Then I watched as Doppel grabbed my throat and lifted me up in the air. I could feel my life slowly leaving. I could hear my mom screaming my name, "With more Phantoms we won't have to wake up Vanity." I heard the Phantom say. Right before I blacked out I heard gun fire and was immediately dropped onto the ground coughing and gathering air back into my lungs.

Once I looked up I saw Travis and Mark rushing into the room with Manuela by Travis's side who had blood pouring down her left arm. I knew this had to be the real one because they were wearing their belts and rings.

"I think it would be best if you back away from my friends." Mark said in an angered tone. It was weird to see him so serious.

"I'll second that motion. I don't know what kind of sick game you're having us play but it ends here and it ends tonight." Travis said in a stern tone. He had Manuela go to a corner as both Travis and Mark held up their hands with their rings present.

"Its showtime." Travis said.

"I'm going to play off that catch phrase. I'ts something perfect for this situation: It's lunchtime." Mark said as they began their transformation poses and transformed.

"TRANSFORM!" Both of them said.

" **Set! Open! L-I-O-N! LION!"**

 **"** **Hurricane, please. Air! Air! Air! Air!"**

The spell circles fully moving through their bodies and showing their Rider forms and Travis reached out for another ring as he scanned it over his belt.

 **"** **Copy, please"**

Travis hovered the spell over his sword as he made another replica of it in his other hand and Mark grabbed his Dice Saber from his belt as they took their battle stances.

"Let's see how you can handle my Ghouls. They aren't like any of the normal Ghouls you have faced. I had these Ghouls modified by Master Wiseman's evolved powers. So they might be a bit of a match for you two." Doppel said.

"Mark take the five on the left and I'll take the five on the right. You need to Robin and Sarah and make sure they are okay and get them out of here. When they are secured I'm tearing this place to pieces." Travis said as they took a step forward but Doppel had them stop.

"You guys think it will be that easy to leave this room or this underground prison that easily? Let's see how you deal with handling that when a Phantom is born." Doppel said. I then looked at my mom and when I looked at Doppel he had in his hand my gun.

"When did he grab my gun?" I said surprised. I then saw my mom get up off the ground as she ran towards me. Doppel then pointed the gun at her to stop her from moving with it aimed at her legs.

"It will be a lot easier to despair if you're in pain." Doppel said.

I quickly on impulse got up and ran as he pulled the trigger and I jumped in the way. When I did I felt the bullet pierce the area between my shoulder and the left side of my chest as I fell to the ground.

"ROBIIIIINNNNNN!" Everyone screamed as I fell forward onto the ground.

My mom held me in her arms, "No not like this. Not again PLEASE! Baby stay with me! Don't leave me! Please don't leave me! I can't have another person I love leave me! Robin!" She was saying while trying to stop the bleeding.

I slowly started to close my eyes but the last thing I saw were purple cracks forming around her. "No…Don't….Please…" I tried to say but my lips didn't want to even move.


	9. Lies and Deceit Part 3

Author's Note: I will be not doing anymore Deadman Wonderland for a good while. In order for me to do Deadman I have to be in a certain mindset that isn't healthy as most of you can get a bit of a guess if you have read any of the chapters especially the earlier ones 1-4. But I will be doing more Wizard Chapters and within the next month I'm going to be releasing a little thing on my account telling you what other fanfic's I'll be writing as well as giving a summary of each work as well as when they will be getting worked on. There will be alot of Wizard books including a Hyper Battle, Taisen War, and a separate but final Wizard Book to wrap up everything. So look forward to that. I should have that list uploaded by the end of the month. Anyway enjoy this chapter and thanks for all of your support and happy reading.

* * *

(Travis's Viewpoint)

I watched as I saw Robin take the bullet for her mother and while watching I grabbed a spell ring and scanned it.

" **Teleport, please."**

In a quick second I was at her side picking her collapsed body up off the ground as Sarah began to despair. Robin's eyes quickly closed.

"ROBBBBBIIIIINNNNN!" Mark roared as he ran towards the Ghouls and started viciously assaulting them. I didn't know what to do but then I heard Sarah say something.

"Get her…Hospital…" She said.

" **Teleport, please."**

I scanned the ring again as I teleported Robin and I to the hospital and when we arrived everyone was scared or shocked of seeing someone dressed like me holding a soon to be dead woman in my arms. I looked at everyone in the room, "PLEASE! SOMEONE GET HER TO A ROOM! SHE'S BEEN SHOT! PLEASE ANYONE!" I said as a doctor came out of the room next to me to see Robin bleeding on the floor. The doctor had long blonde hair, white skinned, blue eyes and stood at my height.

"She's bleeding out. You! Get me a bed ready we need to get her stable." The lady said. I scanned my ring again as tears started running down my face and I went back to the battlefield. When I got back there was only two Ghouls left and Sarah's situation was getting worse. Mark was growling all over the place which showed that he was clearly upset. I watched him grab one of the Ghoul's by its throat as she stabbed his Dice Saber in its chest. He had the Buffa Mantle on which gave him more strength. The last Ghoul had its spear raised and before it made impact with Mark, Mark spun in a circle having the Ghoul's spear land in its ally's chest. When Mark circled till he was behind him I watched as he grabbed the back of its head and twisted it until you could hear a loud snap. The two Ghouls exploded and turned into spell circles that went inside his belt.

"Mark…?" I said confused as Mark was breathing heavily and angrily. This wasn't like him to get this upset in a fight. I almost felt fear to even approach him. He then while standing in the spot where he killed the Ghouls pointed at me.

"Save Sarah. I'm going to kill the Phantom." He said in a very demanding tone.

"Mark what's wrong with you? You've always kept your head cool in a fight. This doesn't seem like you." I said back to him in a worried tone.

"GO! NOW!" He said as I looked back at Sarah whose cracks were almost connected to each other. I ran to her side.

"I can't lose my daughter. I can't lose that part of me again. I was just trying to keep her safe…But now she's gone…I didn't want my last thoughts of us be fighting…I can't hold on…" She said as the cracks began forming faster than before. I raised her left hand and grabbed an Engage Ring and slid it on her finger.

"Robin is still alive right now. She's at a hospital getting taken care of. But you need to be strong and survive this. There is still a chance that she will pull through, and if she does I'm sure Robin would love to see her mother by her side. But you need to stand up and fight this first. I know that all you've done was to protect but you weren't alone in this. Me and everyone around me has protected her when you aren't around. You should see the things she's able to do when she works at it. If you can't stand up for yourself then I will lift you up. I will become that crutch for you." I said as I flipped the levers on my belt.

"Travis…What should I do…?" She asked me as her voice was beginning to break. As I moved her hand to my belt I then responded back.

"Let me protect your hope." I said to her.

" **Engage, please."**

A red spell circle appeared over her body and I dived right in.

(Mark's Viewpoint)

Once I saw Travis enter Sarah's Underworld I leered back at Doppel. "It's time for the massacre." I said as I reached for my ring holder. I grabbed a ring slid it on, and then scanned it.

" **Chameleo! Go Cha-Cha-Chameleo!"**

A green spell circle appeared over my right shoulder as the face of a light green chameleon with its tongue sticking out appeared. I slowly began walking towards the Phantom. "Manuela, this Phantom has a key around its waist. I'm going to get the key and I need you to go find Shawn. He's a few hallways down from here. Travis and I cleared the entire area of the Ghouls. Go get Shawn and come back here." I instructed her. I then walked over to one of the spears and kicked it towards her. "Use that as a way to defend yourself in case you run into any Ghouls we might've missed. You know how to use that don't you?" I asked.

"Yea I know how to use it." Manuela responded.

I watched as she picked it up. "Don't think that you'll be getting these keys very easily Primordial One." Doppel said as he had purple mist appear around him and turned into me. He then ran towards me with two sickles in his hands as he went to slice at my hand I raised my hand and grabbed his wrist and when I did, I spun around his left side holding on his hand and twisted it as you could hear a snap. When Doppel looked back at me I raised my fist and punched him onto the ground. I raised my sword to stab him in the back of his head but he transformed again into a giant stone. My blade bounced out of my hands and went flying backwards and then I felt pain in my legs as the Phantom kicked me causing me to fall sideways onto the ground. When I hit the ground, the Phantom as a boulder jumped up into the air and was going to land on me but I quickly rolled to safety.

When I finally recovered from my roll I watched as Doppel transformed again into a bunch of Ghouls that began to swarm me. I started to whipping them using Chameleo's tongue. The tongue started to phase through the Ghouls. "What the hell? My attack is going right through them!?" I said as I tried to think of a different approach. But when I tried to think of something all of the Ghouls circled me with their spears raised. "One of these has to be Doppel. My whip didn't hit all of them so if I strike at the real one the others should vanish." I thought as all of them began to rush me with their spears. I quickly fell onto my back and when I began falling I went invisible and rolled to the left of the small circle. When I did I rolled through a few of the Ghoul's bodies. I then stood up as all of them began looking all over the place…except one who was staring at the spot. "Got ya buddy." I said as I ran through the Ghouls and did a variety of slashes until I made the Phantom hit up against the wall. I then dropped my sword as I started violently punching Ghoul in the face. When I was done I grabbed the Ghoul from the back of its head and smashed it into my knee a couple of times. Then while keeping my hand on the back of its head I grabbed its chest and spun it around and slammed its face into the wall. I then kept smashing its face into the ground and while I was doing this the Ghoul transformed back into Doppel. I then turned his back around so that he could face me.

"My FACE! Fwat Yu do vat foor?! Yull Pvay vor vat!" Doppel said with a swollen look on his face. I picked up my saber.

"Don't worry there will be more where that came from. I'm going to make your death a very suffering one and when you are on your knees begging for mercy then I will kill you." I said as I went invisible again. Doppel was looking all around for me but couldn't tell where I was. I appeared behind him as I struck at his back with my elbow and then did a barrage of punches from his lower back up to the neck. I then circled around him as I started doing left and right hooks at his jaw. I then raised my right foot and kicked him in the jaw and you could hear a loud crack as it finally gave in. I then did a roundhouse kick into his chest as he got sent flying all the way to the other end of the room. I walked over to his body and picked Doppel up using Chameleo's tongue that was wrapped around his neck and proceed to slam his back into the wall multiple times as I began yelling. While I was causing Doppel pain I was receiving flashbacks of all the fun I had with Robin as well as the times I wouldn't be able to spend with her because of what would happen if she died. I was causing cracks into the wall and you could hear bones snapping in Doppel's body.

"COME ON DOPPEL! WHY DON'T YOU TRY USING ONE OF YOUR TRICKS TO GET OUT OF THIS ONE! WHERE WAS ALL THAT MENACING BRAVADO YOU HAD GOING FOR YOU?! YOU CERTAINLY HAD WHEN YOU TRIED TO KILL SARAH AND ROBIN! WHERE IS IT NOW!" I roared. I then heard Manuela's voice.

"MARK STOP IT! This isn't like you! You need to stop!" She said. I then felt like someone brought me back down to earth. My anger quickly vanished and I released Doppel from my grip. Doppel couldn't even move but was barely hanging onto his life. I turned around to see Manuela stricken with fear as she was looking at me. "Just finish him already." She said to me. I then took my Chameleo Ring and Lion Ring and put them into the slots on my belt.

" **Chameleo Mix! Cha-Cha-Chameleo!"**

My saber grew bright green and I walked over to Doppel who was just barely moving from me as I raised my sword and stabbed it into Doppel who turned into a yellow spell circle and went inside of my belt. After that I picked up the key that was left where Doppel once was and handed it to Manuela. "Here go find Shawn. He is two corridors down." I said to her as she started walking away.

"Mark…Are you going to be okay?" She asked me.

"I'm fine I just got a bit carried away." I said to her as she slowly began walking away from me and then broke off into a jog. I looked back at Sarah's who's body went from rapidly forming cracks to a very slow pace. "Travis, bring Sarah back." I said as I fell to the ground and watched Sarah's condition. "Because I won't be able to as I am right now." I said as tears began to roll down my face.

(Travis's Viewpoint)

Once I went through the spell circle I appeared into what looked like a cemetery that was on the BGSU campus. There was a small group of people standing around a gravestone. When I walked up to them I saw the name Thomas Meade on the headstone. Looking around the group of people I saw two other people standing a bit far away from the rest. The two people were Robin and Sarah. Robin was just a teenager wearing all black as well as her mother. I walked over to see Robin broken and crying and when she finally began to stop her tears I watched Sarah bend down and put her arms around her daughter.

"No matter what, I will protect you. I won't let anyone hurt you and I will keep you safe from harm." She said. Robin broke free from her mother's embrace as she began to run towards her father's headstone and when she did I looked back at Sarah. "Please…Don't leave me…"She said as her voice began breaking up. She stretched out her hand towards Robin, "I can't lose you too." She said and then a giant crack formed in front of her and a Phantom burst out from the cracks. The Phantom struck me in the chest sending me flying about twenty feet away from my original spot.

"Oh you sneaky bastard." I said as I chuckled. I grabbed one of my rings and flipped the levers.

 **"** **Dragorise, please."**

I shot out a red spell circle into the sky as Dragon came roaring out and went to strike the Phantom but went right through the monster. I had gotten a better look at the Phantom. It was a Phantom the size of a 10 floor building. The Phantom had two black wings and a tail with a heart attached to it at the end. A black leotard that covered from it's waistline to half of it's giant chest. The face was pale white skin with bright blonde hair and yellow demonic eyes. The creature wore something that looked like a baggy skirt made from human flesh. The Phantom began giggling and for the first time ever.

"Ha Ha Ha Ha. Nice try human but you are going to have to try a lot harder if you want to take me down. But I do love a man who puts in effort. Maybe when I break free from this host I'll keep you around as my adorable little slave. My name is Lilac, the Succubus Phantom, mind if I have the name of my new slave?" She asked in a seductive tone.

"Since when do they talk in their host's Underworld?" I wondered as Dragon tried to attack from behind but when he did she grabbed him without even looking and raised him up in the air and slammed him on his back onto the ground as purple cracks then started forming around him. "Also I thought I destroyed the Succubus Phantom? So how come she's reappeared as Sarah's Phantom?"

"Tsk tsk tsk. Can't you see that I'm busy doing something here you annoying pest." She said as Lilac raised her foot and stomped down on Dragon's throat hard. Dragon was thrashing about trying to break free but couldn't move and I could tell was having a very hard time breathing.

"I need to do something to free him." I said as I reached into my belt and grabbed my sword gun and pulled back on the black thumb and scanned a ring.

 **"** **Big Shooting Strike!"**

I raised my gun and pointed it at Lilac's foot and fired as a bullet about twenty feet wide zoomed towards her. The bullet ended up going through her leg but did no damage. It looked like it went through a mirage. "If I remember correctly Succubus make illusions as a way to fool the mind of their victims. But I need to know what illusion she is making me see or how it works because right now Dragon's going to die and I can't afford to lose him." I said trying to think of a way to get Dragon out of this situation.

Lilac then looked down at Dragon as she began to hunch over him. Dragon tried to claw at her face but couldn't even reach her. "I think it's time I ripped you to shreds. You're in the way and a nuisance." She said as she raised her hands and began using her claws to rip at Dragon's chest. I started firing bullets at her but for some reason these bullets actually hit her instead of going through her like she wasn't there. I then saw Dragon reach out to swipe at her face but his claws went right through her.

"My attacks landed on her but didn't do anything, but when Dragon went to swipe at her his attack didn't work? I need to figure something out." I thought. I then had an idea that was a bit of a long shot. "Lilac's eyes! What if her eyes cast the illusions?" I had a chance to do something and I grabbed my Teleport Ring. I flipped my levers and scanned the ring.

" **Teleport, please."**

I quickly vanished and appeared right on the back of her neck. "If she can't see me then I can't fall for her illusions." I said as I grabbed one of my rings from my belt. I then walked down the back of her neck until I arrived at the top of her spine. "Hold on Dragon I'm about to free you." I said as I flipped my levers again and turned my gun back into sword mode.

" **Big, please."**

A red spell circle formed around my wrist and moved its way up past my sword. My hand and weapon became enlarged and I jumped up into the air and when I started falling I stabbed my sword into Lilac's back. Once I stabbed her I started falling down her back with the big sword and this caused her to step off of Dragon and move backwards yelling in pain. She started shaking her body side to side which caused me to let go of my sword and it sent me flying away from her.

"DRAGON! GET OFF THE GROUND AND PICK ME UP!" I screamed as Dragon began breathing again and flew off to stop me from hitting the ground. Dragon positioned himself into the direction I was flying and when I saw him I began to land on his back. I flipped myself over in the air and when I got close to him I landed by rolling on my shoulder and then got back up.

"Thanks for that save. How did you get past her illusions?" Dragon asked me breathing heavily still.

"Her eyes. If she looks at us she can easily cast an illusion to make our attacks not connect. So I figured if I teleported to where she can't see me then I could do some damage to her that would get you free as well as make this fight a bit easier." I said. We both watched as Lilac finished screaming and thrashing around in pain.

"I'll kill you! You won't be lucky a second time!" She roared.

"I think it's about time we finished this fight." I said as the cracks started forming around Sarah's Underworld. "I don't have much time to beat Lilac. Everything is going to come down to my next attack. I'm going to have pour a lot of mana into this are you going to be ready for this Dragon?" I asked.

"Do what you have to do human." He replied.

I then took out a spell ring and flipped the levers on my belt. "Okay here goes nothing." I said as I scanned the ring.

 **"** **Copy, please."**

Once I removed the ring and casted the spell I created at least a dozen replicas of me and Dragon in the Underworld. "You think that a dozen of you are going to do anything to me!" Lilac challenged. I then had all twelve us of started swarming and attacking her. All of us were going right through her body and nothing was making any contact. We kept swarming her and I took out another ring during the barrage of attacks we were doing.

 **"** **Small, please."**

I ended up making only me and Dragon smaller as we dashed through Lilac and had the other copies keep her busy. I then had one of my clones stop attacking and that caused the others to halt as they all stayed afloat in front of her.

"I think it's time we finish this." My clone said as all of them took out rings and scanned them.

"You must be joking! No matter what spell you use, you can't put an end to me." Lilac said.

I canceled the spell that made me small and we returned to our normal size. Lilac then noticed this from the corner of her eye and when she looked back I already started scanning my next ring.

 **"** **Light, please."**

I sent out a giant blinding light towards Lilac and it caused her to go blind. I then watched as my replica's used the Kick Strike ring and bombarded her all over the place. I then followed suit with my own attack.

 **"** **Very nice! Kick Strike! The Best!"**

"Finale." I said as I hovered into the air and Dragon transformed his body and became encased in fire. I guided myself down and kick Dragon into Lilac's head as the giant Phantom exploded. I reverted back to my human form right after with only a little mana to keep me awake. I kneeled to the ground trying to breathe and get my strength back. I then watched as something rolled right next to me. I looked at it as it was a giant purple gemstone that had some black coming off of it. "What is this?" I said as I picked it up and the moment I touched it I saw something that looked like Lilac screeching at me from inside. The black mist that was forming around the stone quickly vanished and the bright light the stone was emanating faded away.

"This is a surprise." Dragon said to me.

"What the hell was that all about?" I said to him.

"This is the first time I've heard of it, but when a person becomes a Gate they generate a magical stone that takes the form of other Phantoms that have already existed but changes the Phantoms forms amongst other things. Normally when the Gate despairs, the magical stone is then released from the Underworld and ends up in your world. But something like this is extremely rare for our kind. The Gate has to have a very strong need to hold onto their hope than most Gates. These types of Gates are exceptionally rare because if they overcome their despair they normally still have the Phantom but it becomes them while they are still human. Basically the Gate is given a special ability that is tied to the essence of their Phantom. It's similar to how you have me when you overcame your despair. The same would be with Chimera and Mark as well. But there is only one Gate who has overcome their despair in this situation. Also the human still being human, can never transform into a Phantom. The little bit of power they possess is taken from the Phantom itself." Dragon explained.

"Wait you're telling me that there is a human who has powers of a Phantom but is still human in my world? Wouldn't they be able to become Mages and help fight Phantoms with us? The more people we have the better right?" I asked Dragon.

"Sadly for you, no. Like I said those people only have an inkling of mana, they wouldn't be able to cast or use spells very effectively. Plus the only way to use our powers is by having a belt and the only belts that are available is White Wizard, you, and Mark." Dragon responded back.

"I'm taking it you know who this one person is don't you?" I asked curios to his response.

"I do not. But I know what color stone you must find. The magical stone is black. Find that and the user is not that far away. As long as the person stays close to their magical stone, then they can use whatever ability they have. Now goodbye human." Dragon said as he flew threw a red spell circle and I quickly escaped the one next to me as I reappeared in the damp cell room with Sarah, Mark, Shawn, and Manuela. Sarah had passed out and everyone stood next to me as Mark helped me carry Sarah to safety. Manuela had mentioned that she found the exit to the place when looking for Shawn. We had her guide us out and when we came to the exit and went through it we emerged from what was a door that people used to survive through the rage of a tornado.

"So this entire underground cellar was a tornado shelter?" Mark said a bit surprised. We then looked around to see that we were right behind the Presbyterian Church which was located right across the street from the Bowling Green Police Department in the downtown area of the city.

We made a phone call to get an ambulance to take Sarah to the hospital and when it came to pick us up all of us rode in the back and everyone was silent for the ride. We were all thinking about everything that had just conspired. I called DJ and told him that we were going to the hospital.

"Sarah has collapsed and Robin was shot. Based on where she got shot I'm worried that she won't pull through." I said tired from using up almost all of my mana in that last fight.

"Don't worry she'll pull through. I'll make sure of it." He responded back.

"You'll make sure of it?" I asked confused.

"Don't worry about it. Also I'll be bringing someone you know over. How do you feel about Rachel coming over to the hospital?" DJ asked.

"I'd love for her to come over. I haven't stopped by at Grounds for Thought for a long time now. Maybe she can make some donuts for us? I should really stop by and see her more." I responded back happily. It had been a long time since I've seen her since I've been busy with Phantoms and training Manuela how to fight so she could protect herself when I'm not around which that regimen I have had to put her through has been really time consuming.

We finally arrived at the hospital and Sarah was rushed into a room that was conveniently located next to Robin's. While the doctors were checking up on her I went into the next room to check up on Robin. She was in that blue dress garb that the hospitals used and had a needle in her arm with blood going into it. Robin wasn't looking really good and her heart monitor was just barely beeping as the lines on it were just barely rising. "Robin please survive." I said to her as I grabbed her hand. I then heard the door behind me open and someone was walking in.

"Hahaha. This is funny and sad at the same time. Is this the first time you're losing someone so close to that you know that you can't save?" A familiar voice said in a very chipper tone. I slowly turned around and fear began to overwhelm my entire body. Standing there was Amber Wild, AKA Medusa. Amber began to slowly walk crossing her feet with every step as she walked up to me and put her hand on my chest and started moving it down and then back up to my head. "You're looking good after surviving that hell down in the cellar. Why are you so shocked to see me? Why are you so afraid?" Amber said to me with that wicked expression on her face.

"You're supposed to be dead. I was told that Casey killed you in when that factory struck you down. How the hell are you still alive?" I said back. Amber began having a chuckle as she heard this.

"It's going to take more than just throwing about ten tons of metal onto my body. Granted it took a while to get back up on my feet but I was not put in any mortal danger. I see that you got yourself a new bitch though. But last I checked I didn't officially break up with you that makes me a bit, how should I put it…A bit mad." She said as she grabbed my throat, spun me around and pinned me up against the wall as she lifted my body up a couple inches off the ground. "I want you to understand one thing Travis. Your life is mine and no one else's. If I have to prove it I'll kill not only Robin but all of your friends. So I suggest you break up with that skank in the next room unless you want me to kill her too." Amber said as she then threw my body onto the ground. "Maybe I should prove to you how serious I am by ending Robin's life right now. You don't have enough power to even fight back and you're just barely able to stand as it is right now." Amber said as she slowly walked towards Robin's bedside with her back to me. I tried to get up as Amber took out a knife from her pocket and raised it up over Robin's chest.

I slowly got up and started to try and move but before I even put one foot in front of the other I heard something zoom past me and it hit Amber in the back of the head and I saw DJ zoom past me and grab Amber by her hair and was thrown across the room. "You stay away from Robin." DJ said with a serious look on his face. Amber got up off the ground as she slowly started to walk away.

"This isn't over Travis. I will see to it that one of your friends die, no matter the cost." Amber said as she snapped her fingers and a purple mist appeared around her as she vanished. Shortly after her vanishing act, Rachel came into the room with a Grounds for Thought bag that was huge and came up to me as she gave me a hug.

"Oh my Lord! Travis it's so nice to see you again. Are you okay? You look like you can barely stand." Rachel said as she helped me to a chair. All three of us sat down as DJ asked me some questions.

"I thought Amber was killed. What was she doing here?" DJ asked concerned for my well-being and Robin's safety.

"She survived having a factory dropped on her. She is pissed that I'm with Manuela and is trying to get me to fall for her again by taking the people I care about away from me. I don't know why she showed up now and it's not a good time either. Robin's condition is getting worse and the doctor's upon our arrival said that she might not be able to pull through. They were able to get the bullet out but it was placed in a dangerous spot that could kill her. The doctors are afraid to perform surgery because it might end up killing her but have been doing their best at trying to have her body naturally heal it up for them. What's even worse is that her heart rate has been slowly declining. I don't think she is even going to make it. Everyone else is in the room next door as Sarah is recovering." I explained with my hands over my face as I was about to break.

Rachel wrapped her arms around my shoulders as she held me close to her chest. "Travis everything will be okay. Remember when I would take you to church after you lost your parents? Like I told you back then I'll tell you now. The Lord will walk with you through this pain. When you can't stand, then you must kneel. Kneel and pray for the Lord's guidance. He will not fail you." Rachel said as the pain and thought of losing Robin was starting to build. Rachel then began citing a prayer while holding me as I started to break down a bit. When she was done she helped me stand and we began walking out of the room but DJ stayed behind.

"DJ are you coming?" I asked him as my tears stopped rolling.

"Yea I'll be right there." He said as we walked out of the room.

We went back to see my friends in the next room. When we got back Sarah was still asleep as well as everyone else in the chairs that surrounded the bed except for Mark. He was looking at Sarah's bed with a sad look on his face. I went and sat right next to him.

"We almost didn't make it out this time. We need to get better at fighting Travis. I can't afford to lose anyone else anymore. I don't want to be alone again." Mark said as a single tear ran down his face. I put my arms around him and gave him a hug.

"I don't either man. I don't want to lose anyone else. I don't want to go back to those dark days where it was just me. Having these powers brought me friends that I consider my family. I don't want to lose that." I said. Rachel then put the bag of stuff she got from her store down.

"I think we all need to cheer up right now. It's not good for us to be depressed. I brought us all Cheerio Donuts. It's a white glazed donuts with Cheerios so we can stay happy! Why don't you two dig in and try to look on the bright side of things." Rachel said as she pulled out the donuts and Mark started to dig in. Rachel then pulled out a little box from the bag and handed it to me. "Plain Sugar, right?" She said as she handed me the donut bag.

"You know me too well Rachel." I said with a bright smile on my face as I reached out for the bag.

"I would hope so, since you're like a son to me." Rachel said with a tendered expression.

Mark got up as he started to walk towards the door. "Hey where are you going Mark?" I asked him. He then turned around and looked at me, "Was DJ with you Rachel?" He asked.

"Yea he's in the next room." Rachel said.

"I'm going to go check up on him. Make sure he's alright. He's already lost one friend; I want to be there for him in case we all lose Robin." Mark said. I then got up and followed him to the next room. I was worried about how DJ would take to Robin's death since he lost Marshall Lee last year. Once we walked to the next door we looked through the window and saw DJ standing over Robin's body with his hand on her head. We walked through the door hoping that she hadn't passed.

"Live again." DJ said.

When we had walked into the room we heard the flat lining of the monitor and then we saw a black aura over his right hand that was on Robin's forehead glow and this made us stop in surprise as the flat line started to make a loud pinging noise and Robin began gasping for air. "What the hell?" Mark said shocked. DJ was startled as he turned around.

"How long have you guys been here?" He asked a bit scared.

"We just walked in." I said to him.

He then looked like he started to calm down, Robin was a bit freaking out as Mark and I went to calm her down. "Where's my mom!? Where am I?!" Robin kept saying over and over.

"Robin its okay your safe. Your mom is in the room next to you. We are at Wood County Hospital. Just lie back down and breathe okay?" Mark said. Robin laid back down as she started to calm down. DJ came up to me and placed his hands on my shoulder and whispered something in my ear.

"I will explain everything later, as I'm sure you have a lot of questions but right now let's just put it to the side for right now." He said.

"I do have a lot of questions but right now is not the time or place." I said as we started to celebrate Robin's recovery. Mark went to the next room as he gathered everyone to come see Robin. Everyone other than Rachel had showed up. Rachel wanted to stay by Sarah's side in case she awoke. Robin immediately began socializing with all of us and Mark and I got her up to date on everything since we got to the hospital.

"I don't know why but I'm really starving. I could really go for some Chinese food or some pizza." Robin said. DJ automatically pulled out his phone.

"Well then you're going to love this. The owner at Bamboo Garden was willing to give us a deal on some food if you fully recovered. What does everyone want?" DJ asked us all.

"Oh! Oh! I want a large thing of Chicken Dumplings!" Shawn said.

"Give me six of their egg rolls! As well as two bottles of their orange juice!" Mark said.

"I'll take their Shrimp Lo Mein large size with some of their Chinese Donuts." I said.

"I'll eat Travis's food. But Can I get a bottle of water on his order?" Manuela said as she smiled back at me and sat up against me and rested her head on my shoulder.

"Let's see it's almost two in the afternoon? How about I get their Lunch Special. I want their Kung Pao Chicken with a can of Mountain Dew and Fried Rice." Robin said.

We then all looked at Karina.

"I think we should've had Karina go first. Her stomach is like a black hole." Mark said jokingly. Karina began to feel a bit embarrassed.

"Oh come on I don't eat that much." Karina said.

"Uh huh. Says the girl who ate at least sixty dollars' worth of food and two hours later said was still hungry." Shawn said jokingly.

"For your information it was only $57.75." Karina said back.

"We should totally have her try the South Side 6 Challenge. I feel like she would win the $666." DJ said as a way to encourage her to do it.

Karina then was thinking of what she wanted from Bamboo Garden. "Hmmm maybe I'll have 3 of the General Tso's chicken. All three of them just normal spicy. I'll take a bottle of Barqs Rootbeer to go with it." She said after thinking awhile.

DJ then called the store and placed all of our orders. DJ said he was willing to pay for the entire meal but Jackie gave him a fifty percent discount and said he would have our food sent out to us.

All of us spent time talking and enjoying our fun time with each other. Rachel had come into the room as she gave Robin a hug and happy that she was doing well. Rachel then joined in on the conversations we were having. Rachel then spoke up having something to say. "Travis I never had a chance to thank you for what you did for me." She said to me.

"Huh? What are you thanking me for?" I asked curious to know what she was going to say.

"For saving my life last year twice. One from that thing that looked like you, and the Phantoms in this hospital. It took DJ a lot to convince me to come back here after being told what happened here." Rachel said. Everyone in the room went dead silent. Other than DJ everyone else looked at me wondering how I would handle this situation.

"I…It wasn't…umm…" I didn't know how to respond to her and then she put her hands on my face.

"Please no matter what you do don't lie to me. I'm very proud of you for what you are doing in this town. All of you guys. Do you know how proud I am of how much you have grown up this past year? When your parent's died three years ago and you became legally emancipated, you wouldn't let anyone in. You kept everyone at arm's length and the only people you ever accepted into your life were me and DJ. You always had this fear of being around people because of the pain they could bring. But DJ has told me already that since you became this mage who protects people's hopes, you've grown. You've let people into your life and they have made you grow into something spectacular. Yes you've had a couple of bad ones but that didn't stop you from being there for other people. When I heard this I felt like you were my son. I felt so much happiness for you. Look at all your friends you've made that are in this room. Look at the girl that rests her head on your shoulder." Rachel said. I then looked around me as everyone reached out and patted my shoulder.

"Travis, you gave me friends and helped me get over my brother's death." Karina said.

"You made my life more lively as well as making business at my shop increase. That goes for Karina as well." DJ said.

"You gave me friends as well and everyone here sees me as a person instead of an annoyance. I for once feel like I belong somewhere. Plus I am making rings for you to fight against the Phantoms. Because of that I have a purpose in my life." Shawn said.

"You saved my mother's life twice as well as mine. Because of you I still get to live with my mother." Robin said with a big smile on her face.

"Babe, you were there for me as well as everyone here when my sister Maria died. When I despaired you saved my life and helped me stand back on my feet. You even taught me how to fight so I can be strong and to protect myself." Manuela said to me.

"I got my childhood friend back. Which was something that I thought I would never have again." Mark said.

"And with me watching over you, I finally get to know what it's like to have a son. All the lives you have saved make me so proud of you." Rachel said as reassurance.

The pressure of hearing all this made me look at the ground and then I looked back up as a tear began rolling down my face. "This is a lot for me to process." I said to all of them. For once the giant hole that was left in my heart from my past was quickly closing. We then heard a knock at the door.

"Oh hey umm sorry if I'm interrupting but I have a giant order of food for this room?" A light brown skinned guy with long hair said at the door. DJ told him to come on in as he had one of the hospital carts filled with food. When he did come in we could tell that there was a big wide white deli cake that said "CONGRATS ROBIN." Written on it in blue icing. I then got up and walked over to the man.

"Holy crap what's the cake for?" I asked with my eyes widened.

The man then spoke, "Oh my boss said something about a person who recovered and had this cake set out in case she was able to pull through. Oh I'm sorry my name is Shane Cotter." Shane said as he introduced himself.

"Shane? Wait wasn't there a guy who was white with glasses and wearing an orange and black hoodie at Bamboo Garden?" I asked him. Shane looked at me greatly confused.

"Um you know now that you mention it I think there was. I'm not sure though. I do know who you're talking about but my memory is kind of fuzzy on the whole thing. It's almost like I am forgetting something important. Oh who's signing for the food." Shane said as DJ walked over and took out his wallet.

"How much for the food?" He asked.

"Umm your total is $26.50" Shane said to him.

DJ took out a Thirty-five from his wallet and handed it to him., "Go ahead and keep the change as a tip."

"Wait? Are you sure? That's a big tip you're giving me." Shane said with a shocked look on his face. DJ then had a look on his face like he just remembered something.

"Oh you're absolutely right here take this too." DJ said as he handed him a ten dollar bill.

"I uh don't know what to say. Um this is a big tip sir." Shane said to him. DJ finally convinced him to take it and Shane waved at us as he left. We then took the food out of the bags and we all started eating. Before Robin got her food we put the giant cake on her bed. DJ then took the lid off and then grabbed an envelope from his back pocket and handed it to Robin.

"What's this?" Robin said as she took a pink envelope from his hand.

"Today is January 11th right? That means today is also your birthday." DJ said. Everyone as if we had practiced this began singing happy birthday to Robin. Then while we were in the middle of singing we heard the door opened and we stopped as the song kept carrying on with Sarah just walking into the room. She was a bit tired and was stumbling a bit into the room. She finished the song as she came up to Robin and gave her a hug. She was crying as she hugged her daughter.

"I'm so glad that you're alive. My baby girl." Sarah said. Robin hugged her back tightly as they both began shedding a few tears.

"Mom I'm so sorry for my behavior. I know you're just trying to keep me safe and that's all you were doing. I've been selfish and cruel to you. If you want me to stay as a police officer I will, just as long as you don't leave me." Robin said. Sarah then kneeled next to her bed.

"I accept your apology sweetie. But I want you to live your life. I want you to be happy. If you really want to pursue being a reporter then I have a connection through the police force to get you started and I can give you a very good recommendation to even get paid well. I will also give you an honorable discharge from the force." Sarah said to her.

"Can you give me time to think about it? I was being very forceful back in the cells and I want to be able to make this decision knowing that I didn't force you." Robin said to her mom.

"Of course sweetie. Take all the time you want. Let's talk the rest about this later. It's your birthday and everything and you already have a big spread of food here. So let's just enjoy this moment we have okay?" Sarah said as they finished making up.

"Okay everyone we all love our touchy moments but this chinese-zechhian something or other isn't going to eat itself! Also MAYONAISSE FOR EVERYONE!" Mark said as he somehow pulled out little packets of mayo and started chucking them at us.

"How the hell did you get all of those packets in your pocket?" I said to him as packets were spread all over the place.

"A true magician never reveals his secrets." Mark said.

"He grabbed them from the container downstairs when-." Shawn said but wasn't able to finish as Mark put his hand over his mouth to keep from him talking.

"Like I said a magician never reveals his secrets." He said as he stared at Shawn.

All of us began to laugh as we all dug into our food and started eating. Hours went by and the doctors came in after we were done celebrating saying they were going to keep Sarah and Robin over night to make sure things would be okay. DJ and everyone started to pick up the mess we had made and said goodbye to Robin and Sarah as we all went back to DJ's house ready to enjoy the rest of our night. I ended up taking Manuela with me somewhere as I told her about what Mark and I had seen.

"DJ said he would talk to me about it later. But those powers were clearly mana that a Phantom gives out." I said worried.

"Babe, he said he would talk to you about it. Plus DJ has been our ally since this all started. I highly doubt he would be a Phantom. By what you said it sounds like he saved Robin's life. Phantoms take life, and he could've easily taken Robin's or let Amber take it." Manuela said to me.

"Dragon told me that there is a special Gate that overcame their despair but they aren't like me or Mark who can cast spells very effectively. They can't fight and their power is extremely limited. Plus it seems like their Phantom is dead and only their essence is pretty much left. Dragon also said that only one human has been able to overcome an ordeal like this, because this type of Gate has to have a very strong tie to their hope than what normal Gates have. Do you think DJ might have been this special Gate? It's just so confusing." I said trying to make it all make sense.

"Travis just wait okay. DJ will come to you and talk about it. Have faith in him okay?" She said to him.

Manuela then gave me a kiss, "Let's go back home. Everyone is probably waiting for us." She said as we hopped back on my bike and sped off to home. While we were speeding off back home I had this strong feeling in my gut that something terrible was coming. What I didn't know at the time was that it already was starting.


	10. Rise of Vanity

(A Few Days Later)

(DJ's Viewpoint)

I had woken up at 6 AM trying to get this new ring done. I was in my small office while everyone was asleep working on trying to build this ring. I had gotten the outside of the ring done but now I needed to get a magical stone inserted into it. I reached into my long coat that I was wearing and pulled out my black magical stone. "I don't have much time." I said as I put the stone down on the table. Where I placed the stone was right in front of a photo of my mother, and the love of my life: Dustin. I picked up the photo of Dustin who had very short brown hair slit back, was wearing a plain white T-shirt with blue jeans and a black belt wrapped around his waist. He stood at my height as you can also see me in the picture standing in front of a waterfall when we went on our sixth date 6 years ago. A tear ran down my face as I had a small flash back to five years ago.

The flashback was me on the ground after an explosion was made in my lab that I was working in. I remembered looking up to see Dustin dragging my body as blood smears were being made on the floor. "DJ! HANG IN THERE! DON'T DIE ON ME!" He said. I remember looking at my fingers that were having these purple cracks form. I remember I broke out of his control and tried to crawl my way back to somewhere.

"NO! I'M NOT LEAVING MY MOTHER!" I screamed as I tried to call out my mom's name. But Dustin was forcing me to leave as our entire lab was making explosions everywhere.

"DJ ARE YOU INSANE?! You saw her transform into that angelic like monster! We need to get out of here!" Dustin said. I then broke free from him as I began running away from him and deeper into the lab.

"I have to seal the belt away. If Makoto gets her hand on Dragon she'll destroy everything! I need to seal Dragon along with that belt!" I kept saying to myself as I was dodging debris flying at me.

I finally came back to the present as tears ran down my face. "Mom…Dustin…I miss you so much…" I said as I cried. I couldn't work on making the ring so I grabbed my stone and put it back in my pocket. I walked over to the door and took my keys off the wall and went to my car. When I went to my car I drove over to Grounds for Thoughts where I met Rachel.

"Well if it isn't DJ. You never come here unless something is up. What's going on?" She said as she began making me some coffee. She walked with me over to a table and we sat down. Grounds was always empty until about seven in the morning and I just stared at the coffee.

"Rachel, do you think Dustin's death was quick?" I asked her. Rachel reached out and grabbed my hand.

"Dustin loved you very much. You know he would do anything for you. As for his death I'm not sure. You're guess is as good as mine." She said back to me.

"I just want all of this to end. Do you think it's high time I told Travis and Mark about Vanity? With how things are now, Makoto might try and revive her." I said as tears wouldn't stop running down my face. "You guys told me to stop messing with magic. That it would bring nothing but bad news, but I just couldn't stop. I wasn't expecting things like this to happen." I just had a hard time holding onto my composure and Rachel got up and wrapped her arms around me.

"DJ you have to stop beating yourself up. You can't change the past. Plus you know that Vanity can't be resurrected. She is too powerful for the Phantoms to control. Makoto knows that and so do you. Plus I doubt that Makoto knows where Vanity's tomb is located. You're the only one who does." Rachel said.

"Should I still tell Travis and Mark? They already know my secret when I brought back Robin. I'm trying to work on a ring that will explain everything to them but I don't have much time." I said to her feeling defeated.

"Look if you want I'll be there. How about three days from now. That's Sunday and I have that day off. We'll all sit down and talk to them. If you need help with the ring I can try and help. But right now why don't you spend time with the gang. Everything is going to be okay." She said. I held onto those words as I thanked her for the coffee and got up and walked out the door.

"I don't know why but I feel like I won't be around to help with your quest much longer Travis. But someway somehow I'll finally do something right for once no matter the cost." I said looking up at the starry sky.

(Travis's Viewpoint)

(Two Hours Later)

I was soundly asleep and I was enjoying my sleep until I felt someone violently shaking next to me and when I awoke I saw Manuela moaning in her sleep and violently shaking about. I quickly placed my hands on her shoulders and kept a low voice, "Manuela. Manuela wake up! You're having a nightmare. Hey." I said to her as she stopped moving and her eyes snapped open. When she did and saw me she freaked out for a second. When she finally realized it was me she quickly threw herself on me as she began hyperventilating.

"Thank…Tha…Thank goodness…" She said trying to form her words into sentences.

"Manuela what the hell happened? You were having a terrible nightmare." I said trying to calm her down.

"I-I-I Saw you d-d-die. You an-and M-Mark were lying on the gr-gr-ground and—" I quickly had her lay up against me as I rubbed my hand from the top of her head down.

"Okay Manuela breathe okay? Just breathe. Inhale and exhale." I said as I started doing breathing exercises with her. She started calming down. When she was ready she began speaking.

"You and Mark were fighting this Phantom that looked like an angel made out of stone. You both were knocked out of your transformations and she threw a spear at Mark and you ran to protect him but when you did, the spear hit you in the back and you died instantly. It wasn't a dream or a nightmare, it felt so real. I've had these kinds of dreams before and most of the time what happens in the dream becomes real. I had one about Maria dying and that dream was I found her body in a corn field, the exact one where you fought Kamaitachi. I don't want you to die Travis. I can't lose you." She said as she buried her face in my shirt as she was holding onto it tightly. I wrapped my arms around her.

"Manuela nothing is going to happen to me. I'm going to be okay. Come on let's get a shower and get something to eat. I'll make those strawberry pancakes that you like so much." I said to her. She slowly got up and we went to take a shower together. When we were done she started doing her hair and makeup. I walked and put on a black shirt and put on my red jeans as I walked downstairs and into the kitchen. I started cooking Manuela her favorite breakfast as I started thinking about what she had told me.

"She was able to vision her sister's death? Does that mean I'm going to die fighting a Phantom?" I wondered as I flipped the pancake over to cook. While the pancake was cooking I walked over to the fridge and pulled out the carton of strawberries and strawberry syrup and put them next to the stove as I kept my eyes on the food so it won't burn. When I was done I turned the stove off and slid the pancake onto a paper plate and grabbed a knife to cut the strawberries. I then placed them on top of the pancake, sprinkled a bit of cinnamon and sugar, then took the syrup bottle and poured it. I made the letter M on the pancake which is something Manuela loved seeing me do then grabbed a fork and knife as I walked out of the kitchen and back to our room. I heard a soft voice coming down the hall which was Manuela singing.

"… _I'm looking at life through my own eyes, searching for a hero to idolize._

 _Feeling the pain as innocence dies, I'm looking at life through my own eyes._

 _I'm hoping and praying for a brighter day. I listen to my heart and I obey. How can I see it any other way? I'm looking at life through my own eyes…"_

When I was at the door she converted the song into a hum and when I walked into the room I startled her a bit, "You really have an amazing singing voice. It's not too pitched and not too low. Here's your pancakes." I said as I handed her the plate. She had a bright smile on her face as she kissed me on the cheek.

"You should really come see me perform. I'm always topping at the stand-offs that happen every Thursday at the city park." She said as she started eating her food.

"So I hear. I should come see you perform sometime. How about next week? How much is it to get in?" I asked her.

"It's $30 bucks. Half of the fee people pay to come in goes to the top 2. I've been getting first place the past month. I come home with about 200-250 a week." She said with a bit of pride.

"What are you planning to do with all that money? You barely spend any of it." I asked.

"Oh I spend some of it, but I mostly am saving up for me to become an artist. I want to sing and create my own songs but I need money for that. I feel like doing these competitions every week helps me become a better singer and if I can get money from it I'll save it so I can make a name for myself in my life. My sister Maria inspired me to become a singer because my voice was better than hers. Our dream was she would be my dancer for when I hit big if I did the singing part. It was our dream and since she is dead now I want to keep that dream alive by making it a reality." She said twirling the fork in her hand.

"How much money have you saved up?" I asked her.

"I have about $1800 in my savings account at Huntington. I have about $112 in my checking. I've been doing this for the past seven months. I started doing this after Maria's death because it's a great way for me to cope. I've also helped make the competition popular as we get people from all over Ohio to come see me and the other contestants to perform." She said with a happy tone in her voice. She was kicking her legs back and forth as she finished eating. There was just one piece left of her breakfast and she stabbed it with her fork and then turned to me. "Hey babe open your mouth." She commanded. I opened up as put the food inside.

I began to chew and then swallowed, "It's not that bad. I'm not a huge fan of strawberries but that was pretty good." I said to her. I was enjoying the moment we were having until I heard heavy footsteps storming down the hall. "Here's Mark in 3…2…1…" The moment I got to 1 Mark busted through the door holding a bunch of stuff in his hands.

"HEY TRAVIS! You have to check this out! Look what I won just a bit ago! Free movie tickets to the Woodland Mall! We should all go see a movie today! Quick let's get changed and wake everyone up to decide what movie we should all go see toni-…Oh you guys are already changed. Sweet let's go wake up the other lazy bums in their beds and gather in the living room!" Mark said as he dashed out the room and you could hear him calling to wake everyone up. I looked at Manuela.

"Hey did you ever hide that stash of candy that was Mark's favorite last night when we got home?" I asked her.

"I actually forgot." She said back.

"I think he found that stash." I said as I rolled my eyes.

Mark on sugar is never a good sign first thing in the morning. Suddenly I heard him running back towards our room as he ran past the door I heard him say, "Thanks for the candy guys!" Mark said energetically. "Hey DJ wake up old man! We be going to the movies! Whoooo! The day is young and so am I!" Mark said waking up everyone in the house.

Everyone gathered and wanted to go watch some action suspense movie. But when Mark realized that he was missing one ticket we had to decide who was going to stay behind. "I need to get this next ring done as quickly as possible. Why don't you guys go and I'll stay behind." DJ said. Mark and I looked at each other since we hadn't told anyone else about DJ's secret.

"But we want you to come with us." Karina said whining. "You don't come out of the house that much. Plus this is a big thing for all of us. Can't the ring wait till later?" She asked.

"Yea come hang with us! We all have enough money one of us can buy you a ticket." Shawn said excited. Robin had spent the night and even gave her input.

"It's okay to work hard but you have to know when to have some fun. Like a break so you don't overwhelm yourself." She said to him.

DJ kept the smile on his face as he respectfully declined again. Manuela was tugging on my shirt, "Is everything okay with DJ? He's been working really hard on this ring but won't say anything about it. Plus whenever he has time to be alone he takes it so he can make the ring. This has me a bit worried." She whispered in my ear. I whispered back.

"Everything is okay." I said.

"Okay so who wants to get ready for the showing? The mall opens up in an hour we should all get ready and go peruse the stores and stuff!" Shawn said excited.

We all got up and got ourselves ready and in just ten minutes we all headed out the door. Manuela wrapped her hand around my waist as we got on my bike. Mark got into a minivan with Robin, Shawn, and Karina and we all headed to the Woodland Mall on the other side of town.

(DJ's Viewpoint)

-One Hour Later-

"Alright let's try and get this ring finished. I just need to get a piece of the magical stone cut and sanded down so it can fit into the holder." I said as I took out my tools and tried to cut it. I had gotten a good size chunk off and started trying to get it to be a circular shape. This was always a process and is the reason why the rings take so long. I looked at the clock and thought maybe it was okay to take a break. "When it's all done Shawn will be able to create rings without my tutelage." I said. I ended up remembering what Robin had said before they left, "Take a break huh? Sounds like a good idea. I am running on just a few hours of sleep. Maybe a nap is needed." I said to myself. I walked out of my office and into the living room as I laid on the couch and when I was about to drift to sleep but I saw Dustin's guitar hanging on the wall above the TV. It was your classic guitar nothing special. I got off the couch and took it down and began strumming it. My voice went from that elevated pitch to deep like a country singer as I began singing me and Dustin's song.

" _See you and me riding like Bonnie and Clyde rolling 95 burning down 129…_

 _Yea…_

 _Looking for the law while I push my luck._

 _She is riding shotgun like it ain't no thing, turn the radio on so the girl can sing, right._

 _Pull into the party like yea what's up? tonight it's bottoms up! Up! Up!_

 _Throw it all down rock this quiet little country town and get up!_

 _Drop a tailgate on your truck! Find a keg and fill your cup up!_

 _Kick it on back! Pretty little mama looking at you like that!_

 _Make you wanna slide on in like Girl what's up? And tonight it's bottoms up! Up! Up!_

 _Get'em up…"_

I finally stopped strumming the guitar as I remembered how I met Dustin when he walked into Country Night at the bars and heard me singing this song to the customers. _"_ I miss you…" I said as I looked down at the guitar. I placed the guitar back on the shelf and went back to the couch as I pulled one of my Native American blankets over me as I turned on the TV to listen to the news. I began closing my eyes a bit and ended up falling asleep.

I was having a nice nap when I heard a knock at the door. The knock was soft but just loud enough to wake me up. I got up and began yawning as I walked towards the door. "I'm coming!" I called out trying to wake up. Once I grabbed the door handle something told me not to open the door. I stretched out my hand towards my office as my black mana stone floated towards me and I shoved it into my pocket. I then reached into my back pocket as I pulled out a silver pocket knife and opened the blade. I slowly opened the door and when I looked outside I noticed that no one was there. I put the blade back into my pocket.

"Someone is here." I said as I started looking around the yard from my door step. The moment I took a foot outside my house I saw a black cloaked figure swoop from above and kicked me back into my house. The figure had this cloak that covered the entire body and started to attack me in my home. The figure went to do an open palm to my jaw but I was quick and grabbed the wrist before the attack made contact. I raised the arm up into the air and open palmed the figure in the diaphragm. The figure stumbled back and then rushed at me throwing a kick to the crotch which I turned to the side and kicked the figure in the face with my leg. But the figure bent backwards and when my foot went through, the figure stood back up and lifted it's foot as it kicked me across the room until I hit a wall and fell onto the ground. The kick was to my diaphragm and I was trying to breathe while my body was in a bit of shock.

"This person fights like Makoto. This person has amazing speed in combat and flexibility. That moment when they bent backwards to dodge my kick proves that when they were able to keep their position as if it's been something they've been doing for decades. I need to find out who this attacker is." I said as I started to stand up with my hand over my chest.

The figure then rushed at me and based on their stance and the left hand cocked back I knew what attack they were going to use. I took my right hand and positioned to their face and my left hand a few inches directly under my right. The attacker ran straight into my hands and the moment they stumbled back I reached for their throat and then used my other hand to lift them up off the ground and I threw the figure hard on its back. I took this moment to pick up the attacker by their clothes and ran to the other end of the room where I slammed its back against a wall. "Time to unmask my attacker." I said as I grabbed the hood and pulled it back. I ended up dropping the attacker onto the ground as my hands covered my mouth.

"This has to be a joke. You're supposed to be dead…" I said as I looked at Maria Urbieta's collapsed body. I then felt an arm wrap around my throat and could feel my oxygen quickly leaving. I grabbed the arms that were wrapped around me and hunched my back over and then jumped backwards as I slammed the person onto the ground. I finally broke free from my attacker and I saw my old friend Makoto. She had short black hair that was combed to the left side of her face, light brown skin, brown eyes, and was wearing a white long sleeved shirt with ruffles on the wrists and these white and black cargos. "Still wearing men pants are you?" I said to her.

"They feel a lot more comfortable to fight in than women's pants." She said back. "I see you still wear simple clothes as always."

"Yea I do. They may be plain but they work." I said keeping my guard up.

"We don't have to fight like this DJ. I loved you at one point you know." Makoto said to me.

Makoto began flexing her muscles getting ready to fight. "You want to wipe out human civilization, and you were going to do it by using the Phantoms that are scattered about in the world. I'm sorry but after I went through my despair I don't want anyone to go through that." I responded back.

"You know that humans are going to be the reason why this world won't exist. I'm just speeding up the process. The Phantom race is far more superior to measly humans. They don't need no desires, their bodies can easily overcome at least 95% cause of deaths in the world today, and we don't need to eat, drink, or sleep. This is a type of evolution that world needs. All people have to do is give up their weak self for something stronger. I want you to be next to me guiding that evolution. In return I'll bring back Dustin." She said trying to make a deal.

"Dustin is dead, our experiment on the Wizardrivers and mana made sure of that. You wanted to protect human life, but once you got touched by that mana you've changed. You're not the same Makoto I know." I said sternly.

"Then explain how Maria over there is still standing." Makoto said. I quickly turned around to see Maria hit me across the head with a board knocking me out cold. The last thing I saw was Travis and his friends running into the house.

(Travis's Viewpoint)

We had just walked into the house as I saw DJ collapsed on the ground. "DJ!" I screamed as Mark and I quickly approached the attackers.

"Hello Travis and Mark. We're taking DJ with us." The woman in the white get up said to us. I heard Manuela run past us as she ran up to Maria.

"Sis is that you? Sis speak to me! I thought you were dead!" Manuela said as she was violently shaking. I quickly ran to Manuela's side but was arm barred by the woman in the room causing me to fall on my back. Mark came in to distract her but when he went to punch her; she grabbed his wrist and twisted it causing Mark to fall on his knees. I got up to save my friend until I heard a smack and Manuela fell on top of me. I heard Robin run into the room with her gun drawn.

"Make one more move either of you and I'll put a bullet in your legs! Travis get Manuela over here! Mark get DJ and bring him here and stay behind me." I quickly got Manuela up but she was fighting from my control to go to her sister. I finally got control of her. Before I knew what happened I heard a gunfire and when I looked up I saw the bullet stopped in midair. The Japanese looking lady had her extended and I could see some white mana emanating from her hand as a barrier was placed around her, Maria, and DJ. Mark was having a hard time trying to break through the barrier.

"DJ is coming with us. I'm also taking my Teleport Ring back as well Travis. That was a gift for Dark Wizard and not you. With DJ and Maria at my side I will be awakening the Fallen Angel Phantom. I didn't want it to come to this but you and the Primordial One here have been wiping out my forces quicker than I hoped. Flare pick up DJ we are leaving." She demanded.

" Travis, my name is Makoto Fueki. I am the White Wizard that has gotten you this far in your journey but now it will come to an end." Makoto said with a huge smile on her face. She then slid the ring on her finger and scanned it over a red and black driver that was modeled after mine.

" **Teleport, now."**

The voice in the driver was deeper than what mine was and in a flash of light the three were gone. "NO!" I said pounding the ground. I couldn't see everyone's reactions but you could feel that everyone was shaken to their core at DJ's kidnapping. Manuela broke free from my hold and ran back to our room Mark and Shawn shortly walked out of the house. Karina ran to her mystical ball in the living room as she tried to see if she could scry DJ which she spent the next two hours doing. Robin stayed in the house as I ran out of the house and got on my bike and drove around in the countryside trying to calm myself down.

(Makoto's Viewpoint)

We finally teleported to a laboratory that was once mine, the lab is where DJ, Dustin, Rachel, and I were experimenting on mana and the site where Phantoms became more known amongst the world. There were three capsules on the wall in this giant grey stoned space. It was pretty empty since I had gotten rid of most of the equipment. The walls all had things up against them but in the room itself only laid a few things.

I pointed to one of the capsules that had a bright ember glow, "Flare. Go rest." I said to her as she dropped DJ onto the ground and when she walked into the capsule, it closed with the impenetrable glass door that slid shut. I picked up DJ and placed him on

the operating table I then walked over to a fridge that was active on the other side of the room and grabbed a Monster Energy Drink with a green M on it. I then walked with it back to the table and placed it next to DJ. I pulled up a chair and sat next to him as I stared at him.

"When you awake I will find where your mother rests so I can awake her. I couldn't find Dragon and the Wizardriver because when you sealed it you moved its location, and I know you did the same thing with your mother's tomb. You knew exactly how dangerous your mother was and sealed her away from me somewhere in Bowling Green. What I want to know is where." I said to the sleeping DJ. I knew that soon I will have my answer and then I looked at one of the capsules, "Soon the Obelisk of the Phantoms will rise and my Eclipse will begin. I need to find two more potential people to become Gale and Aqua. Then I'll be able to turn this entire world into a Phantom Paradise." I said.

DJ began to grumble as his eyes slowly started to wake up. "Where am I?" He said trying to realize everything that happened.

"Hey there DJ, sorry for the harsh knock out." I said to him. "Remember this place?"

DJ began to look all around as I could tell that his memories began to swarm back to his mind. I held up the drink I got for him. "I don't want it." He said back to me. I shrugged my shoulders as I opened up the can and began drinking it myself.

"I never could understand why you liked this crap. Even though a fraction of me is human, I can't taste this." I said to him.

"Why'd you bring me here? Why is Maria alive?" DJ asked me with a serious look on his face.

"I've already told you. I want to revive Vanity, and I need your black magical stone to do so." I said as I began walking around DJ and then up to Flare's capsule. I put my hand on the glass as I watched the girl sleeping in an incandescent orange liquid. "As for Maria, well that's one magic trick that this magician is going to keep for herself." I said as I turned around to see DJ chuck a pocket knife at me. I widened my eyes as a white barrier formed in front of me and it caught the knife in midair.

"I see you've also gotten stronger with your powers…Wiseman." DJ said to me. I then had a purple mist form around me as I transformed into my white Phantom form. I began to slowly walk towards DJ.

"That experiment to combine the Philospher's Stone with the Wizardrivers did more than give me mana as well as keep me from dying, it turned me into one of the most powerful Phantoms known to date. Even in my human form I can use my powers to do things to protect myself, similar to how Travis can create spell circles upon his transformations to protect him from an attack. That's another thing too. I need to find that Stone. When I got grazed by its powers it vanished into thin air with no trace to where it went. Even with all of my spells I can cast I can't track it. I need that stone to create the most powerful ring: The Despair Ring." I said chuckling at the thought of what that ring could do for me.

"I'm not going to tell you where my mother lies. She's been dead in the ground for 5 years; I would like to keep it that way." DJ said to me. I quickly spun around and started stomping over to him. I grabbed him by the head and lifted him up off the table with one hand.

"You're going to tell me where Vanity sleeps! The Hope Mage and the Primordial Mage have greatly over the year lessened my pawns that I need to create more Phantoms and I need a way to stop them by any means necessary! Travis is an essential tool for the Obelisk of Phantoms and the Eclipse Ritual. I've worked too hard for the past five years to bring forth the Ritual and I won't allow one person that I have feelings for get in my way of my dreams!" I said as I threw DJ onto the floor.

DJ was on the floor in pain, "You won't get anything from me. I'm not going to make another grave mistake again, us making the belts and dabbing in magic already caused a lot of issues. For instance you were once someone who cared about human civilization, you wanted to protect it not destroy it. Around the globe monsters have begun appearing and they each have their own protectors to fight against or so we heard. I will not be the reason why more innocent people have to die and you shouldn't either!" He said angrily.

I grabbed him by the back of his neck and lifted his face to mine, "I see you are going to have me do this the hard way. You forget DJ I'm the most powerful mage there is. Extracting memories from your brain is mere child's play for me. The only reason why I don't want to do it is because of the pain it causes to the victim. Everything you know I will know. I'm not like Travis and Mark who are extremely weak. They can't cast spells unless they are transformed and have rings for their casting, I don't need such things. The rings I started out with are all that I need. Over the past five years I've learned to use my powers in my human form and soon I'll be able to add them to my Phantom form which will make me even stronger." I said to him.

I had a white mist form around my hand and watched it as it seeped into DJ's skin. DJ began screaming in extreme pain as his veins began to show on his head. He was trying to clutch his head but couldn't. "NOOOO MAKE IT STOP! DON'T DO THIS! STOP!" He said as his body began violently shaking all over the place. His memories began flooding into mine. Seeing things he has done with Travis and the gang, seeing his first Christmas with everyone, the rings that he had made, tears that he had shed whenever looking at his mother's photo, going to Rachel on multiple occasions to find closure for the death of Dustin and his mother, his emotions he was having when Travis fought Dark Wizard, and then I finally got to a photo he had on his desk that he flipped around back when Travis fought Gargoyle that said "Mother's Location." I immediately got out of his memories as DJ had blood pouring out his nose and mouth and was shaking like I electrocuted him. His violent shaking began to greatly decrease and I reached into his pocket as I pulled out his black magical stone.

"There is a lot missing from this stone. Where did you hide the rest of the stone?" I said at DJ as he slowly began to lose consciousness. "ANSWER ME DJ! WHERE DID YOU HIDE THE REST OF THIS STONE! THIS WILL NOT GIVE VANITY ALL OF HER POWER! WHERE IS IT?!" I said screaming at him as he passed out from the pain. I knew it was going to be a while before he would awake so I woke Flare up from her slumber.

"Masked Rider Flare, wake up I have a mission for you." I said as I walked over to her capsule and pressed a button to open it. She snapped her eyes open and we walked out of the lair leaving DJ collapsed on the wet floor. "This stone has enough power to at least resurrect Vanity, I'll just have to feed her power through another magical stone. The only magical stone I have left that has my stored mana is with Howler, or how Travis and Mark know him as Terrion White. He is also the last Phantom that was murdered by a Phantom instead of despairing like the others." I said as we walked out of the lair. Once outside I breathed in and out.

"I can't believe that you created a catacomb for your mother so close to your home DJ. I wonder if your Mages and friends know about this at all." I chuckled. "Flare hold onto me. We are going a good distance." I said to her. Flare grabbed my shoulder.

 **"** **Teleport, now."**

(Travis's Viewpoint)

I had driven about a half a mile down the road until I came up to the cornfield where Maria was held by Kamaitachi. "What the hell is going on in my life?" I thought as my brain was all over the place. I couldn't think straight but I knew I had to find DJ at whatever the cost. "I'm not going to lose anyone else from my life." I said as I scanned my Plamonster rings.

 **"** **Garuda, please."**

 **"** **Unicorn, please."**

 **"** **Kraken, please."**

All of my Plamonsters pieced themselves together as they awaited my orders. Kraken and Garuda started floating in front of my face and I could hear Unicorn whining as he tried to jump off the ground. Garuda shook its head in disgust as it flew down to pick up Unicorn and had it hovering off the ground with the rest of the gang. "Okay guys can we just focus here. DJ's been kidnapped and is in danger." When I said that Garuda dropped its mouth in surprise and accidentally released Unicorn from his grip. Kraken quickly transformed itself with Unicorn to become a new Plamonster where they could both levitate in the air. Unicorn was not pleased with Garuda.

"I need you three to search all over Bowling Green for him. When you find something out let Karina know and have her call me. Go." I said to them as they all went off in different directions. I looked up from the cornfield and saw a tree with a wide enough branch to sit in. I walked towards it through the long maze and climbed it. On the branch I could see all the way to DJ's house. The sun was shining really bright at my direction so I scanned one of my rings.

" **Connect, please."**

I pulled out some rope from the red circle and grabbed the branch and tied the rope to the branch I was on that blocked out the sunlight. I then looked around the little forest area, "I don't know why but whenever I'm surrounded by nature things just feel calmer around me." I thought to myself. I listened to the winds gently blow around me and listened to the birds chirping in the other trees. I put my back up against the tree and took my cell phone out and began texting Manuela.

 _"_ _Babe, how are you feeling right now?"_ I sent the text back and she quickly responded.

 _"_ _I'm not feeling well. What are we going to do about DJ? Mark is running around town looking for him with Shawn. Robin left to do a search party and got Rachel and Sarah looking for him. Karina has been looking through her ball but there is nothing."_ She replied.

 _"_ _Also what makes me feel more broken is Maria. That was my sister in the flesh, but when she hit me it didn't feel like her. Maria wasn't that physically strong. She left a bruise with that slap on my jawline."_

I could tell that this was the source of Manuela's pain. I texted her back, " _I don't know what's going on either. Maria was confirmed dead at the hospital. The beating she received was caused by a Phantom and they hit very hard. I don't know what's going on but I promise you I will find out."_

She then responded back, " _I feel like I'm living a nightmare. I know DJ means a lot to all of us but can you come get me. I don't want to stay here and do nothing while everyone else is doing something."_

I replied back to her, " _Yea sure. I'm right down the street. I'll be over in about five minutes meet me outside and we will go searching together. I'm sorry I left you guys behind I just needed time to think."_

I hopped down from the tree and jogged over to my bike as I got on and heard my phone ring. I opened it to see Manuela having texted me back, " _I love you Travis."_

" _I love you too Manuela."_ I texted back. I put my helmet on and flipped the eye shield down as I zoomed down the country road.

I walked into the living room to see Karina running straight up to me with an urgent look on her face, "Unicorn found Makoto and Maria!" She said. Manuela had just entered the room.

"Where are they?" I said back.

"What's going on?" Manuela said.

"Makoto is about a mile out from here. There is an abandoned house down the road from where Maria was held by Kamaitachi. It's an old run down shack." Karina said looking at me and Manuela.

"Okay I'm heading out, you two stay here things are probably going to get serious." I said as I ran up to the door and grabbed my black coat. But before I ran out the door Manuela stopped me.

'I'm going with you. I want to see my sister." She said with some fear on her face.

"I wonder if it's also about her nightmare where I died." I thought to myself. I quickly pulled out my phone and texted Mark telling him to come pick up Karina and the place where Makoto was spotted. Everyone was going to gather there. Manuela got on my bike and we drove as fast as I could to the abandoned house down the country road.

I was blazing through the speed limit down the road going about 90 miles per hour and getting to the house in just less than two minutes. Once there we got off the bike and looked at this giant creepy house that was all boarded up. It was a very dark brown with plants growing all over it. The only thing not boarded up was the front door, which looked like it was blasted through. "Could this be where that Fallen Angel Phantom is?" I said as we walked through the door. "Manuela stay close to me." I said to her. You could feel this immense eerie feeling emanating throughout the house. The house was more disgusting looking on the inside than the inside. It looked like this was abandoned for over a decade, even the smell in the house was overwhelming.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up." Manuela said keeping her hands over her mouth.

We walked through the different areas of the house until we found a door that led to the basement. "This is starting to have a bit of a horror vibe to it." I said as the old battered door slowly opened more making a creaky sound. We walked up to the door and stared at the pure darkness.

 **"** **Light, please."**

I scanned the ring and as my hand lit up and I shot a ball of light that once hit the floor, lit up the entire room. With the darkness gone there wasn't much reason to be scared of what awaited us. We slowly made our way down the stairs into a giant empty and damp basement where we saw another hole in the wall. We quickly ran up to the side of the hole and when I peeked inside I saw a small hallway that went about twenty feet and at the end I saw a room lit up. "Stay close to me and be very quiet." I said to Manuela. We began creeping further into the cavern and I saw a giant tomb with what looked like an angel as the cover standing up with Makoto and Maria standing in front of it. We got up quick enough to hide up against the entrance into the giant cavern looking room. I looked into the room to see Maria next to Makoto who stood in the front of the tomb holding DJ's black magical stone.

"With the power of this magical stone, I, Makoto Fueki release you from the seal done by your son Daniel J Belzung! I give you the power from his stone to give you life and have you walk amongst the living once more! Arise! Vanity the Fallen Angel Phantom! Serve me to create a world where Phantoms rule!" Makoto said as she slammed the magical stone into the tomb and a giant black mist of mana began erupting from the stone and seeping into the tomb. A black pillar of light shot up from the tomb and into the ceiling making a pathway to the outside world. Makoto grabbed Maria's hand as they walked into the black pillar and got transported up.

"I don't know where that goes but we need to head above ground ourselves! Manuela let's go." I said as I grabbed her hand and ran into the pillar. We were immediately taken up to the surface and were thrown out of the pillar as we rolled onto our sides until we came to a stop. The black pillar began to vanish as Makoto and Maria were standing right in front of the tomb once more that had black cracks forming all around it. We heard a car screech as I looked over to see my friends finally arriving on the scene. Shawn was running towards me as he tripped and fell holding his head as he began screaming in pain. Karina who was running towards me stopped as she looked like she was paralyzed with fear. Mark was having a hard time moving forward with fear keeping him where he stood still. Manuela quickly hid behind me as she began to cry and when I looked at the tomb I could feel what everyone else was feeling. "This is no ordinary Phantom. It hasn't even been released and it's caused all of us to become overwhelmed with fear." I said.

Black miasma began circling around the tomb in different directions and once the miasma got absorbed again into the tomb, the whole thing began to crack and then shattered into giant pieces onto the ground. Once that happened all of us could feel the sensation that kept us bound to where we stood as the pieces slowly began to stack on top of each other. They formed a greyish white Phantom that had black and white wings, a face with small blue eyes, a halo wrapped around its forehead, it's body covered in feathers with some of the black and white, black fingers, a grey fabric cloth that was wrapped around each leg and ran up the back as it was wrapped around the neck like a choker. The Phantom then breathed in a massive amount of air and when it exhaled it caused us to feel a giant breeze pass us by.

"I've almost forgot what this sensation felt like." The Phantom said with a crackly voice. You could hear its body cracking loudly all over the place as it moved each body part while stretching.

"Travis! That's the Phantom my mother warned me about! We were supposed to kill that thing while it was asleep! I had forgotten all about it till now! Don't let that thing live any longer!" Shawn screamed at me. This caused the Phantom to look at Shawn as it raised a hand up and a black ball made of mana began to form.

"I hate loud creatures." The Phantom said. I turned to see Mark running towards Shawn.

 **"** **Driver On!"**

"Oh no you don't! Transform!" Mark said running to Shawn's defense.

 **"** **Set! Open! L-I-O-N! LION!"**

Mark quickly transformed as the black ball zoomed towards them and I watched as it got swatted away by his Dice Saber. "Mark behind you!" I yelled at him as he turned around to see the ball coming back around and colliding with his back sending him flying all the way towards me knocked out of his transformation. He had cuts all over his body and blood slowly pouring out of them. He was moaning in immense pain as it was hard for him to move his body. I quickly lifted his head up scared for what could happen.

"Agh…I'm okay Travis it's just a flesh wound ha ha ha." He said joking about the situation. He then tried to get up off the ground but fell onto the ground. "AH! Okay not getting up got it." He said trying to make light of the situation. I placed him slowly back on the ground as I stood back up.

 **"** **Driver on, please."**

"No one hurts my friends." I said in a low tone.

"Oh so you are challenging me huh? You've got some balls if you think you can beat me. With how much mana you have not a single attack you make will hit me." The Phantom said with a light cocky tone.

I flipped the levers on my belt, "I wouldn't underestimate me before you even get a chance to see what I can do." I said to her.

 **"** **Sha Ba Doobie Touch to Transform! Flame…Dragon! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn!**

A red fiery dragon zoomed out of my belt and circled around me. When my transformation was complete I was holding two of my swords that were resonating a red fire on the blade. "Ooh very impressive that your magic has allowed you to do that much. Fine I will play with you until you can't even stand anymore." The Phantom said. She summoned out two blades that were both made of feathers. One was white while the other was black. She swiped at my neck and I did a hanging block. She then took the other blade to slice at my chest but I put a lot of force behind my other sword that I did not only knock away her weapon, but was able to come down for a slash. But right before it would cut her, she grabbed my wrist. I was doing everything I could to force the blade down but she had control of my arm's movements.

She then raised her foot up to kick me which I dodged to the side but fell for a trap where she had her wings erupt out of her body and wrap themselves around my arms as I got lifted up into the air, then slammed into the ground multiple times. After the last collision into the ground she lifted me up once more until I was about a few feet above her. She bent down and picked up my weapons that I had dropped, "I don't like it when people don't listen. Wizard, you can't scratch me. In order to do any damage to me you have to have the same amount of mana as me or greater. I'm not even at my full power and all I've done in this little squabble of ours is toy with you. Take this lesson to your grave." She said as she pressed on the triggers to my blades that were still lit up in fire and slashed them across my chest. I was let go from her wings and was sent flying across the battlefield until I was up against the house. I was knocked out of my transformation state covered in burns and blood streaming out of my body.

"I shouldn't be feeling these burns on my body. Flame Dragon makes it to where I don't get harmed by fire attacks, so why is this different?" I said trying to stand up but the pain was keeping me down. The Phantom then began talking.

"I have swiftly taken out the two mages who you have been trouble with Makoto. Amongst the two mages there seems to be one that can consume the life of Phantoms. This one could prove a problem with us; I will be the one to end his miserable life once and for all. Mark Allen Boger, aka Masked Rider Beast, let it be known that on this day, I Vanity of the Fallen Angel ended your pathetic and meaningless life." Vanity said as she raised a hand in the air. A spear shaped like her feather blades appeared.

"I need to…Move!" I said as I fought against the pain and began running to Mark's defense. "I won't lose Mark again. I won't lose anyone ever again!" I said as I used my pain as motivation to run as fast I could.

"TRAVIS NO!" I heard Manuela scream at me. I then remembered what she had told me this morning. " _You got hit with the spear in your back…"_ I remembered her saying to me.

"I'm not going to die here!" I said as I took out a ring from my pocket and scanned it. When I did Vanity threw the spear and I wasn't going to make it in time but I knew my spell would.

 **"** **Voice, please."**

I stretched my hand out as ripples began making a loud noise that quickly spread across the battlefield and it collided with the spear knocking it a couple inches past Mark. Vanity began running towards Mark to finish him off but I directed my hand towards Vanity which caused her to fall to her knees closing her ears. When I finally got to Mark my spell canceled out and I fell to the ground as all that pain I was ignoring now came back to me. I was screaming very loudly as the pain kept getting worse and worse. I had my eyes closed hoping that the pain would become a bit more bearable. I felt something grab my neck and lift me up off the ground. I opened my eyes to see Vanity, "I don't know how you were able to do a miracle like that but I can guarantee you it will be your last. Can't cast spells if your arm's broken right?" Vanity said as she dropped me onto the ground. She then kicked me until I was on my stomach and grabbed my arm and twisted it behind me. I don't know what she did next but I heard a giant snap and I couldn't move my arm. My body was now unable to do a thing except roar in pain from everything going on. Vanity then grabbed me by my jacket and threw me farther away from Mark. I had landed on my back next to my other friends.

"Travis! Travis baby stay with us! Oh my god…" I could hear Manuela say. I tried to keep my eyes open as I saw Vanity walk towards Mark with the same spear in her hands. Mark was slowly backing up.

"Goodbye Primordial Mage." Vanity said as she raised her spear. I couldn't move my body and I saw Mark making eye contact with me. He began to mouth words to me and I watched as the spear came down. In an instant someone ran past us really fast and stood over him with the spear through his chest. When I saw this happen everything around me became inaudible. I don't know what happened but I looked at Mark and slowly moved my gaze up to the person who saved Mark. A flash of light was made next to Vanity as she fell onto the ground from Makoto pushing her. I finally opened my mouth as the person fell onto their knees with blood flowing down his body.

"…DJ…" I said.

I felt something inside me thrashing about in my heart and mind as the emotions starting rapidly building up inside of me. I looked at everyone who was struck hard at what had occurred and Makoto was holding his almost dead body. DJ looked at me as I began fighting against the pain to run to his side. His eyes almost closed and I finally made my way next to him and Makoto. Makoto was trying to talk to him but I couldn't even hear her I was focused on DJ.

"Tra…Vis…I'm so…Sorry for everything…I'm sorry for…" DJ said as his eyes closed and Makoto gave out a harsh cry. I quickly shook him with my other arm.

"DJ! Finish your sentence! Don't die on me! Wake up! DJ WAKE UP! Open your eyes! Please!" I said as tears flowed down my face. Mark began crawling his way towards DJ as he bursted into tears over him. "This isn't supposed to happen…Why is this happening?" I said as I felt a piece of me rip apart. Vanity kicked me to the side as well as Makoto. My hearing came back as I heard everyone's feelings screaming out. But most of all I heard what Vanity had to say.

"What a pathetic person. Dying for a hopeless cause makes humans to be weak. When I help create Phantoms I will make it so that the weak remain buried. Maybe I should keep a piece of his body to use as a symbol of what weakness really looks like. I think I'll keep the head." Vanity said. Rage boiled up inside of me and I felt a dark presence lingering inside. Dragon pulled me into my mind as he started flying all around me and landed right in front.

"There is a way for us to stop Vanity, but you will need me to have complete control of your body." Dragon said.

"I won't. You will go on a rampage and cause me to despair. I knew this when I first got the Drago-Timer." I said angrily.

"Yes but if you don't let me out, DJ won't be the only person who dies today. You have to choose. Will you have one friend die, or all of them?" Dragon responded.

"I want to ravage the hell out of Vanity for DJ. I want to rip her to absolute shreds. I'll let you out, but when we are done you are going back here." I said as I agreed.

"Very good. Your emotions will give me even more power than before."

I reached out and touched Dragon and when I did everywhere around me became black.

(Mark's Viewpoint)

Vanity took another step towards me and grabbed me by the throat as she lifted me up off the ground and reeled her arm back. "Nothing will stop me from killing you." She said. She then looked down at the ground as Travis grabbed her leg and then her wings with his one good hand. When he was able to stand, he did a right solid punch into her side hard enough that she dropped me and fell onto the ground.

Travis's eyes looked like an eclipse, "Nobody will harm my friends." He said with a heavy tone in his voice. I then heard his arm make loud snapping noises and twisting all over the place. Watching this painful procedure was hard but in seconds his arm was completely healed. With that same arm he raised it until you could see the whole Drago-Timer gauntlet rested on his wrist.

"Is that really you Travis?" I asked. I was really confused at how he was able to summon out the Drago-Timer. Travis began snarling and growling and it was really creepy to hear. He then started turning the dials to the appropriate colors while hitting the black thumb.

 **"** **Flame Dragon!"**

 **"** **Water Dragon!"**

 **"** **Hurricane Dragon!**

 **"** **Land Dragon!"**

The dragons appeared but didn't stay around. Travis then restarted the dial again and flipped the levers on his belt. A mixture of red, blue, green, and yellow mana started forming around Travis as he gave an evil expression to Vanity.

"Transform." He said growling.

Travis then scanned the ring on the gauntlet over his still transformed belt.

 **"** **ALL DRAGON FORMATION, Please!"**

Each elemental dragon form then violently collided with his body as he began to get lifted up into the air and his entire body transformed. Everyone in the area looked at Travis's new form as he was in Flame Dragon form with black wings out his back, a black tail, yellow dragon claws, and his gem faced looking more like a dragon's. He flapped his wings once and it almost caused all of us to get flown off the ground. I saw movement in front of me as Makoto and Maria were huddled around DJ's body.

"I'm getting you out of here DJ! Hold on to me Flare!" Makoto said as she scanned her ring.

 **"** **Teleport, now!"**

In a flash the three vanished and Manuela came and helped carry me back up to the road where everyone else was at as we began to watch these two go at it.


	11. Alteration

(Manuela's Viewpoint)

I dragged Mark up the little hill and out of the danger zone as we all watched Travis getting ready to fight with Vanity. I put Mark up against Robin's van. "Are you okay Mark?" I asked him.

"Yea I'm doing okay. I might not be able to fight for a while. But I'm more worried about Travis. What is that form he is in?" He asked as Robin and Karina started wiping the blood off of him.

"I wish I knew." I said to him. We all then watched as the two finally made a move towards the other.

Travis was growling as he extended his tail to attack Vanity. Vanity grabbed hold of the tail and started swinging Travis in a giant circle. Travis sat up as the mouthpiece on his chest opened up breathing fire at her. This caused her to drop him but instead of falling onto the ground Travis opened his wings and flapped them sending green circles of wind to attack her. I watched as Vanity vanished and appeared behind him. She grabbed him by the back of his throat and threw him high up into the air. She then stretched out her angel like wings as the feathers started zooming up into the sky hitting Travis in the back. The feathers didn't even disappear; the stems became chains as they wrapped around him causing him to fall to the ground below. Travis slammed into the ground leaving cracks around him as he struggled to break free.

"You can't break free from my chains. I'm surprised that you have enough mana to fight back after everything you went through. But I'm afraid this is the end of the line for you." She said. I watched as her spear like weapon formed from her wings. I started to move not wanting Travis to die but the moment I took a step Vanity slammed her blade down but it stopped an inch from impact. She was struggling with trying to ram into his skull. "What the hell is this?! Why can't I kill you!?" She said putting a lot of effort into breaking through.

"Travis, I think has control of all his elements. So he's using gravity to stop Vanity from attacking him." Mark said next to me.

Travis used his claws to sever the chains on him and then tackled Vanity in the stomach as they went flying into the abandoned house. We heard the house being destroyed from inside and then Vanity was sent through the roof into the air where he began spinning towards her like a drill ramming into her chest and then did a U shape curve toward the ground. He stopped his drill like movement half way as he started furiously swiping at her until she hit the ground. When she was on the ground Travis reeled back as he let out a giant roar into the air.

"I don't think that's Travis anymore. That roar sounded more like a dragon." Karina said.

"I think who we are seeing fight is Travis's Phantom, Dragon. It would make sense because this is not Travis's style of fighting. It's too crazy and monster like." Mark said.

Once Travis stopped roaring he then stepped back as his tail extended again and slammed into the ground causing ice to form within a foot of the ground trapping Vanity underneath. He then raised his claws and started stabbing through the ice and then ripping the entire foundation around her.

"Travis is doing his best to make sure Vanity is dead isn't he?" Robin said with a worried look on her face.

I then looked back at him as I remembered something that Travis once told me. We were standing outside DJ's place early in the morning sparring against each other and I had asked about his Drago-Timer. "There is a feature that I haven't used in my Drago-Timer. I don't use it because it's dangerous." He said to me.

'What's so dangerous about it?" I asked him.

"Because when I use the full power of this gauntlet, I'm no longer in control of myself. The only way to stop that from happening is if I run out of mana, or someone gets the gauntlet off my hand." He said to me.

"So you blackout and something else takes over?" I asked him.

"Yes. Dragon takes over and even though he is using his power to help me in my fights, he still wants to end human life. The only reason why he isn't now is because I'm in control. But if I go into All-Dragon Style, he is in control. So if I ever go into this form, stay away from me. It is a last resort if the fight can't be solved by other means. I also don't know what can happen so I need you guys to run as fast as you can. Because I might see you guys as enemies than friends." He warned me.

Looking back at the fight I saw him still slashing at the ground and then he stopped.

"I know what that form is. It's All-Dragon. It's a form that allows his Phantom to have complete control of his body. Right now that's Dragon, not Travis." I said to everyone.

Travis began to walk towards us as began growling. He then broke off into a run at us but the ground in front of him ripped apart as feathers of black and white formed revealing Vanity. I could see a weapon that looked like a scythe in her hands. "You thought you had me didn't you? Don't forget that I'm a fallen angel. You're going to have to do more than that to kill me." She said to him. Vanity then swung her blade at him which struck Travis across the chest and sent him flying backwards. Vanity then raised the scythe and stabbed it into the ground as lines started forming towards Travis who had just gotten back on his feet. Vanity clapped her hands together and then pulled them apart as the ground began forming a gap causing Travis to fall in. She then brought her hands back together as the ground connected back crushing Travis alive.

"Travis!" All of us screamed as the ground repaired itself like nothing had just happened.

"Ha foolish child, no matter what you do you aren't going to be able to beat me. I'm out of your league." Vanity said as she turned to face us. When she did we heard a rumbling from the ground beneath her as a spiraling blur erupted out of the ground hitting Vanity in the jaw which sent her far up into the air. Vanity then recovered herself with her wings but Travis was already up in the air with her. His wings on his back began shining a bright blue as he shot out giant shards of ice at Vanity. Vanity began zooming through the air dodging all of the ice as she made her way to him. We watched as the shards of ice stopped going forward and came back at Vanity which hit her in the wings and caused them to freeze over.

"You've got to be kidding?! You controlled your ice to come back at me?" Vanity said shocked. She began falling down to the ground as she collided a few feet deep. When she tried to get up Travis had his dragon's mouth and spewed an intense stream of fire down onto her. When he was done I saw his claws go from gold to dark blue and he came soaring down hit the ground with his hands covering a wide part of the ground into a giant ice cube. Travis began roaring like some animal as he viciously started stabbing his giant claws into the ground. He then raised his tail and slammed it on the ground causing giant cracks to form all over the vicinity where Vanity lied.

Travis stopped attacking the ground and then he looked over at us. He began breathing heavily as he slowly started walking towards us. "I think it's time we leave. He might see us as enemies." I said to everyone. We quickly started getting into the Robin's van but I stayed behind as I looked around the battlefield and found both of the Travis's swords lying on the ground about ten feet away from us. "I need to get those in case I need to use them for our escape." I thought to myself. I then began running down the little hill towards the weapons.

"Manuela! What are you doing?!" Shawn yelled out to me.

"We've already lost DJ we're not losing you too!" Robin said as well.

"If we are going to get out of here safely we need something to protect us." I thought. A tail came rushing towards my left side and was going to knock me off my feet. At the last second I flipped over keeping my arms crossed on my chest and then rolled onto the ground. Once I stopped rolling I picked up both the swords and turned the one in my left hand into gun mode. I started to run back to the gang but a strong gust of wind hit me sending me flying further away. I landed on my back as I felt a bit of wind knocked out of me.

"Manuela!" Mark said screaming. I heard gunshots get fired that hit Travis and he just kept walking. Robin reloaded her gun and fired again.

"Travis if you're in there stand down!" Robin said but Travis wasn't listening.

He slowly walked towards me and I finally was able to breathe again just in time as Travis slammed his tail onto the ground and a stream of ice came towards me. I quickly rolled on my side far enough to get away from the ice that hit the house freezing the whole thing in just mere seconds. "He's keeping me out of range." I recognized as I tried to look for an opening I could exploit. "I think he wants me to make it to my friends. They are just bait because it would be the obvious trap. But at the same time he's keeping me at bay from him. Does Dragon know that I excel at close combat? That and the fact that I'm faster at attacking than Travis?" I thought as the tail stabbed into the stream of ice. The ice began turning into needles that shot towards me. I quickly ran towards the left side with the attack missing me.

I then started to run towards him, "If I'm going to get us out of this situation I'm going to have to get rid of the threat. Let's hope that my plan I came up with works." I thought while running. I raised up the gun and began shooting at Travis. He began flapping his wings and the moment they went back I would run out of its path. I then began circling around him while getting closer towards him. I kept him occupied by firing more bullets every two seconds. He was having a hard time stopping the bullets as I started inching closer towards him. I had finally gotten close enough to him as I ran straight towards his back without him noticing. He raised his tail to swipe but I raised my sword and pierced it through the tail. Travis moved his body back roaring in pain. "I'm sorry this hurts but it will be all over soon." I said to him. I then put the gun into sword mode and slashed at his side. He tried to arm bar me with the back of his claws but I ducked under him and slashed at his chest twice. He then swung the same arm at me but I ducked under and pulled on the thumb on the sword.

 **"** **C'mon Slash and Shake Hands!"**

The tune kept repeating as he began to move his wings back and when they came forward I jumped forward to him missing the wind attack my face was now standing front of the dragon's mouthpiece and it was ready to burn me to a crisp. I then moved to the side and wrapped my leg around his right leg causing him to stumble and lose his balance. I then saw his right hand come to pierce me which I bent backwards causing his attack to move just pass me. "Ha you fell for it Dragon." I said. Once his arm was stretched out as far as it could I swung the still singing blade underneath the gauntlet where there was a ring that got scanned into the belt.

 **"** **All Dragon! Slash Strike!"**

I then lifted my body back up as the blade began to emanate all types of bright colors with a dragon's head at the tip of the blade. I then pressed the trigger as I slashed from Travis's shoulder to hip. The dragon left the blade and took a giant form as I created a colorful tornado around Travis's body. While the attack was going on I heard the ground become unstable and I saw white and black feathers form behind the tornado.

"This is perfect. I can kill Travis the moment this spell is over! Thank you girl! You just made it easier for me. Hahahaha!" Vanity said laughing.

"I thought Travis killed you?!" I said extremely worried.

"I've been hiding underground once he slammed me into it. He didn't kill me dear. He thought he did but all he was hitting the earth." Vanity said as the tornado then began to vanish revealing Travis who quickly fell to his knees and then reverted back to his human self before his face hit the ground. The sword that was in the tail vanished, which I knew was the one Travis used the Copy Ring. I then ran towards Travis with my sword at the ready.

"You won't touch him. If you want to kill him you're going to have to get through me first." I said as my body began trembling. Vanity slowly walked towards me and the more she did the more my body started shaking. When she finally was at the tip of the blade she yanked it out of my hands and threw the blade away from us. I then felt paralyzed from fear. Vanity grabbed my hair and started stroking it.

"You weren't afraid to fight him but you are terrified of fighting me? What was that going through you bit? Was that just big words for such a little girl? Or did you not think twice about what you were getting yourself into?" She said as she grabbed the top of my head and I could feel her going through my memories. She then let go of my head as she began laughing. "Hahaha. This is just too perfect. You're his lover. No wonder you are willing to stand up against me to protect him. Let me tell you something dear, do you think that Travis can love someone if they are dead?" She said as she grabbed my throat and lifted me up in the air. I could hear everyone calling out my name.

"Am I really going to die here?" I asked myself as I tried to break free from her grip.

"Don't worry about a thing Manuela. I will make sure that when Travis dies, both of your bodies will be lying side by side. A tragic end to your wretched love story." She said as she grabbed one of her feathers and it formed a crescent knife. Before the blade would pierce me I saw an arm swing down on hers breaking me free from her control. I fell onto the ground hard and when I looked up I saw Travis just barely standing and a lot of blood running down his body.

"Don't…Fucking….Touch her!" He said roaring at her.

"You're just barely able to stand and are only able to by sheer willpower. On top of that you are giving ME demands? You should look at yourself. You look like a wounded animal. But it doesn't matter because I'll kill you right here and now. Farewell Ringed Bearing Magician." Vanity said as she went to slice at his throat. The blade stopped at his skin as a bright clear blue aura started radiating on half of Travis's body. He raised his right arm acrossed his chest to his left shoulder.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" He said as he swung his arm knocking into Vanity's. A stream of mana struck at Vanity sending her flying far away from us. She fell onto her back and rolled back up as Travis fell to his knees.

"Travis! Hey are you okay? Hey speak to me!" I said standing in front of him. I looked down at the top of his chest as his cross necklace was glowing a very bright color that was the same as his aura. I then looked down at the Engage Ring on my hand to see the gem glowing in a very bright glow.

"That's not Dragon's mana. So you're just like Makoto and DJ. Just how much mana do you actually have Travis?" Vanity said. I didn't know what she was talking about at all and by the look on Travis's face he wasn't sure either. Travis was breathing extremely heavily taking deep breaths throughout his next choice of words.

"How…The hell…Am I…Supposed to know…?" He said.

"I see that you are even more of a threat to us now." Vanity said.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me. You're still going to try?" I said to her.

A bunch of feathers shot up into the air as they all pointed at us. Vanity raised her hands up into the air and right before they fired down to us, she began to scream in pain and the spell she was about to cast vanished. I looked to see Makoto having her hands on the bridge of Vanity's shoulder and throat and little purple mists with some sparks started forming around Makoto's hand. Vanity quickly kneeled to the ground and when she did her monster form reverted back to that of an 50 something old woman. Makoto then looked up at us.

"Everyone here has lost a great person today. I will spare your lives for today and this time only. I have matters to deal with Vanity here. But I promise you I will be back for you Travis, and your friends will die. Sayonara." Makoto said as she scanned her ring and teleported away.

I gave a strong relieving sigh as Karina and Shawn ran down the little hill and up to us. "Manuela! Travis!" They yelled as Robin and Shawn tried to help Travis up the hill and they placed him in the car. Everyone began talking and treating Travis's wounds. I walked up to them to see how bad his injuries were as well as Mark's.

"I gotta say you're one wild girl. I didn't think you would be able to take on Travis's All Dragon Style…AND LIVE! WHOO WE SHOULD ALL CELEBRATE! LET'S GET DRUN-Ow!" Mark said as he grabbed his side in pain. "Okay can't laugh. Got it." He then looked around to see as everyone was pretty much silent and then he followed suit. Travis then grabbed the side of my shirt as he brought me closer to him.

"I could've killed you. We already lost DJ. Do you know how destroyed I would feel if I killed you? Why did you go and risk your life like that?" He said with a mixture of anger and worry on his face.

"We were going to leave but I looked back at you and I saw you in pain. The pain of losing DJ. You were growling and roaring in everyone else's eyes, but because I know you I saw a broken person screaming for someone to come save them. You were screaming for someone to relieve the pain. I wasn't going to leave you behind and suffer like that. What kind of girlfriend would I be if I just left you all alone when you are breaking apart? I should be there for you not just your greatest moments, but even you're darkest ones. Plus you saved my life when I was despairing. You save everyone's lives. I think its best that I returned the favor and save you." I said to him.

Travis didn't know how to respond back to that as his eyes began to slowly close. We buckled everyone in as Robin drove off down the road back to DJs. I held the sword in an inverted grip as I hopped on Travis's motorbike and began to drive down the road but not without looking back and re-playing DJ's death in my mind one more time.

"I wonder if any of us will be able to get over this…" I said as tears began flowing down my face.


	12. Memories of a Ring Maker

(Travis's Viewpoint)

A few days had passed since our fight with Vanity. I was all bandaged up and was on a lot of pain relievers since I got home. Manuela wouldn't leave my side nor let me out of bed. She wanted me to heal up and that it would be better if I wasn't moving around. My only problem with that is I wanted to move. I don't like just staying in one spot for too long. It's not like I could do much anyways since the pain kept me bedridden. I looked at the alarm to see it was almost noon. My friends didn't come and see me except for Mark who for the first time would stay silent. He had come into my room at this time to check up on me.

"How are you doing Travis? Feeling any better?" He asked in a slump.

"I'm doing a lot better than I was a few days ago." I said jokingly.

"That's good." He said.

"How is everyone else doing?" I asked.

"I wish I knew." He responded.

"What does that mean?" I asked worried.

Mark then sighed. "Robin has avoided this place, Karina stays locked up in her room. Shawn hasn't been over since the attack. I've been doing my best trying to get over it all, and Manuela has been taking care of you since. I think she is the most active out of all of us. I tried calling Shawn to hang out but he just says he needs time to mull some things over."

"Everyone is taking DJ's death hard. I need to give Karina mana." I said trying to stand and it took a lot out of me to just stand. I then fell onto the bed as I screamed in pain. Manuela had just walked into the room.

"TRAVIS! I told you not to move! You need to stay in bed until your body recovers. Gosh can't you listen, your body is in pain. You shouldn't even be able to move a finger with how busted up you are." She said as she pulled the blankets over me and handed me a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

"I can go get Karina for you. Just stay here." Mark said as he walked out the room.

Manuela had me lean up against the wall as she scooped some of the soup and blew on it before she had me open my mouth to eat it. "I can see why All Dragon is dangerous. I wasn't quite expecting that spell I did to cause you this much injury." She said to me.

"I'm still wondering what happened to me out there after the All Dragon transformation vanished." I said to her.

"You mean when your body began to emanate that crystal blue like color? I remember Vanity saying something like you had the same power as Makoto and DJ. Have you thought of what she meant by that?" Manuela wondered.

"I don't know. I just know that I didn't want to lose you and I felt something overwhelm me. I then remember screaming your name in my head which is at the same time my unknown power struck at Vanity. Whatever it was, it struck Vanity hard. I know it was magic because I felt the mana flow around me like it does with my spell rings. But that mana didn't feel like the mana from Dragon. It felt like it was something of mine." I said as I took another bite of the soup.

"Do you think everyone will be able to move forward from all of this? I think we should all be together right now instead of separated. I can understand that we lost DJ and that being in this house is hard on us, but you, Karina, and I don't really have any other place to go." She asked me with her head down.

"We are all pretty shaken up from the loss of DJ. Everyone has their own way of coping with loss and I will believe that we will all come back together once we are able to cope. Right now I need to get better because now that Vanity is out we need to be prepared." I responded back.

"I hope you're right." She said in a low tone.

I finally finished my soup and Manuela took the bowl and went to wash it in the kitchen. I then laid on my back as I looked up at the white ceiling. "I want to believe that but I have my doubts as well. None of us really lost anyone close since we have been fighting Phantoms. Except for Manuela." I thought. I then heard a knock at my door as Mark came in with Karina. Karina ran up next to me as she gave me a light hug.

"How are you doing bro?" Karina asked me.

"I'm sore all over. I hate being bedridden when I should be out there trying to keep the city protected." I said to her.

"Well you need to heal, if those wounds open up again you won't be doing any kind of fighting." She said to me. I reached out for her hand and placed it over my belt.

 **"** **Please, please."**

Orange mana began to flow into Karina, "You need to keep your strength up as well. Don't worry I'm going to be fine." I said to her. She left the room as I tried to get some sleep. Manuela came into the room as she laid down next to me.

"I miss DJ." She said shuddering a bit. I wrapped my arm around her and kissed her forehead.

"Yea… I do too." I said as I quickly fell asleep.

A couple of days had gone by. Mark had taken over the whole watching the town for me but we had no incidents or signs of Vanity anywhere. Robin and Shawn came back to DJ's which they mentioned just looking at the house was hard for them to deal with as they saw their memories we all had in this house. They had decided that it was best for all of us to work on this together in coping with our losses. We weren't as lively as we used to be but we began working on it. I was finally able to start walking around more. Manuela helped me walk down the stairs as a crutch so I wouldn't fall. Mark and Karina had helped with making food and one of the nights we all went to the movie theater as we watched a comedy in a way to brighten ourselves up. It was my first time being outside the house but my injuries were still there. But I wasn't in a lot of pain that would keep me bedridden. The date was finally January 18th, 2015, I was fully healed and it had been a bit over a week since we lost DJ. I had just gotten back from eating at Big Boy's with Manuela.

"I can't believe you dared me to get that giant sandwich." She said as she was holding her stomach like it was going to explode.

"Ha ha ha. I told you that you didn't have to order it." I said laughing.

"I think I'm more surprised at how you ate the rest of it. I don't know how you have the stomach for that." She said with a smile.

"Well I have just been eating soup for about a week and fruit. I thought I was going to forget about what actual food tastes like." I said jokingly.

We had walked past DJ's office when I saw a bright glow from the corner of my eye. I stopped at the two steps in the living room that led to the big hallway to my room. Manuela was at the top step, "Babe what's wrong?" She asked. I then turned around and walked into DJ's office.

"I've noticed that there is something in here for a while but I wasn't sure until now. There is a huge source of mana in this room." I said as I started shuffling through all of DJ's stuff. Amongst all his tools and messy room I found a ring. The jewel inside was a black stone with the letter M on the ring. "What is this ring?" I said. I then showed it to Manuela. "Do you know anything about DJ making a ring like this?" I asked her.

"No I didn't." Manuela said shaking her head.

Karina came walking into the room, "Hey bro what's up?" She said yawning as she was sleeping most of the day. I showed her the ring.

"DJ left behind a ring but didn't tell me anything about it." I said to her.

"I know he was up a few nights before our fight with Vanity working on something." She said. I then saw Mark, Shawn and Robin come into the house.

"I seriously can't believe that there is GARLIC mayo! God what will people think of next." Mark said excitedly as he had three bags filled with what I was guessing the garlic mayo. He then saw me holding the ring. "Hey a new ring already? I didn't know you were working on a new ring Shawn." He said with a smile at Shawn as he put his hand on his shoulder. Shawn looked so confused.

"I didn't make a new ring. I haven't in a while." He said.

"Then who made that ring?" Robin said.

"I'm going to scan it and see what it is. It might be helpful." I said to everyone. I then heard a knock at the door that was still opened as Rachel from Grounds for Thought walked in.

"I think you should scan that ring and find out Travis. That ring is all of DJ's memories. He made that because he knew he was going to have to sacrifice himself one day in this fight against Phantoms. You all will get to know a side of DJ none of you would ever have known." Rachel said as she gathered all of us into the middle of the room.

"How do you know about this ring?" I asked her.

"Because I know a bit of DJ's past. The guy who made the Wizard Driver that Makoto wears around his waist." She said with a worried tone.

Everyone's mouths dropped, "WHAT?!" we all said together.

"When you scan that ring you will see everything through the eyes of DJ from when this all started back in 2010. The day that we all accidentally created more Phantoms and Vanity as well. Do you think it was just some coincidence that DJ and I have been looking after you for these past few years Travis?" Rachel said.

I stumbled a bit back as I tried to wrap things around. "Wait so you guys knew I was going to get this power? You guys knew I was going to have to fight these Phantoms?" I asked confused at what was going on.

"We told of a prophecy that the one who will become Wizard was a boy who had a high mana flow in him. He would be targeted by Phantoms for the Phantom that lives inside him. DJ knew from the moment you lost your parent's that you were the prophetic child. He knew when he first met you thanks to that stone you hold in that ring." She said back.

"So you guys have been basically just using him this whole time? Travis looked up to you and DJ like his parents! But not once did you guys want to come out and tell him at any given time about something as important as this?" Manuela said angrily at Rachel. She then started walking towards her but I reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

"Stop, Manuela. It's fine." I said to her. She turned around angry still.

"How is it fine!? All they've done is made your life terrible! If you weren't involved with being a Rider you wouldn't have suffered what you went through because of me. You wouldn't have had to go through all this pain you've been going through the past 10 months. You told me yourself that you were given this power when you didn't want it. So why would you defend her knowing this?" Manuela said irritated.

"Because if I had chosen to stay as myself I never would've met you guys. The old Travis wanted to be alone for the rest of his life. But thanks to me getting this power I've made friends and it's helped me grow better. I probably would've never got to see Mark and make up, and I know I never will have gotten to meet you. Yea I was given a bad hand a lot since I got these powers and yea Rachel and DJ weren't completely up front with me on stuff. But with this ring I can finally understand everything that is going on, plus I'm already in the situation. It's not like I can yell at them and go back in time to change everything." I said to her. She immediately calmed down and I walked over to Rachel who looked like she was going to cry.

"I'm so sorry for Travis I wanted to tell you, I just couldn't I didn't know what you would do if you knew. I was hoping that DJ would tell you just to make it easier on me and he was planning on doing so when you guys found out about his abilities. He specifically created that ring so you guys could all understand." She said as little tears ran down her face. I gave her a hug as I rubbed her back.

"I'm not mad at you or DJ. I'm not mad at all." I said to her. She held me tighter.

I let her go as everyone gathered around us. "Okay let's do this Travis." Robin said. Every grabbed me as a means to hold onto me as I slid the ring on my finger. I then placed my hand on my belt.

 **"** **Memory of a Ring Maker, please."**

Once I removed my hand everything around us became black as we all became DJ's eyes from 5 years ago.

(DJ's Viewpoint)

"DJ? Hey DJ! Hey old man wake up!" Someone said while I was asleep. I went to open my eyes but before I did, I felt water get sprayed on me.

"AGH! Okay! Okay I'm up! Uugh…What time is it guys?" I said asking Makoto and Dustin.

"7PM. Come on Deej we got to test out this prototype. Go grab the ruby from over there." Dustin said to me.

Dustin was 6'1, white skinned, short light blonde haired that was always combed back, some freckles on his arms, a light beard on his face with some cheap piercings on his ears. He was wearing a white baseball sleeved shirt with an abstract art that was black and blue jeans. He was also my boyfriend that I have been dating for about 5 years.

Makoto was a slight athletically built woman with black hair that went a bit over her ears. She was part Japanese and part American. But with her accent you can almost tell that she was full blown Japanese. She even followed their customs. She was wearing a laboratory outfit but with black cargo pants. She seemed to always be interested in men's pants than women's. Makoto was 5'9 so she was a couple inches shorter than the rest of us.

All three of us were working on for the past six months a power that could help us protect people. Makoto had all of the equipment and project ideas when we first met her six months ago when she came to America. She had brought everything over and came to Bowling Green Ohio where she could be at peace. We had found an abandoned underground laboratory. It took us about a week to clean it up and make it decently habitable for our work. Plus the abandoned lab had a lot of its equipment left behind which made it easy on us financially.

I had walked into a circle that was drawn on the floor in chalk as I held up a belt buckle that was colored in all black with a red outline of a hand. I put the belt over my stomach as Dustin connected the straps so it would stay on my body. "Okay almost got it connected." He said as he snapped everything together. We had wires connected to the belt so we could generate power from a bunch of car batteries that was left behind. "Okay so on three you will place the stone in front of that hand but when you do make sure that the right lever is up and the left lever is down." Dustin said to me.

"Okay got it." I responded back. I breathed in deep and exhaled.

"3…2…1…Power on!" Dustin said with a chipper tone.

Electricity charged to the belt and I flipped the levers and placed the ruby in front of the singing belt. But the moment the belt began to sing one of the wires began to malfunction and started to go up in flames.

"DJ RIP THE BELT OFF!" My friends said to me. I tried to but the belt wasn't easy to rip if off like it used too.

"I can't get it off!" I said panicking. Dustin quickly ran behind me as the flame on the wire started to quickly course towards me.

"FUCK! Me neither!" He said. I started to get scared as the flame was quickly moving towards me as well as sparks were violently going all over the place. I then watched as Makoto grabbed the wires with her bare hands and pulled on them upwards as she took out a hatchet that we had lying around and chopped through the cords. She got shocked from the entire ordeal and once the belt on me was removed I quickly picked her up from the ground and placed her on the table. I had a bit of shock from picking her up as the current was still coursing around her body. Once I placed her down the current and her reactions to it stopped. She was still breathing but her hair was standing straight up. "Thanks for saving me back there Makoto." I said to her as she was coughing.

"I…wa…was…scared…you would…d-d-die…" She said still in pain.

I looked at her arms and inspected to see how bad the injuries would be, "Looks like you are lucky. You're going to get off with slight minor burns. If anything though I think we are done for the day." I said to everyone.

"Well with the sever of those wires and the fact that this is try number 297, I don't think this is an effective way to use the Belt." Dustin said.

"We have to find a better name for that thing other than Belt." Makoto said starting to talk better.

"Well hey at number 190 we were able to get the singing parts in. and at 92 we were able to record a mix of my voice for the singing bits of the belt." I said jokingly.

"Hey Deej, do you think that your mom will make that awesome lasagna again for us tonight?" Dustin said with some hope in his eyes.

"I hope so. We pretty much go all day without eating because we are trying to work on mixing magic and science together. It is almost dinner time we should head back to my place. While we're eating we should come up with some other way of getting that belt to use the power of mana." I suggested. We all left the underground lab and got into my car. Dustin sat up front while Makoto sat in the back. Once we were all strapped in I started the car and grabbed Dustin's hand. We zoomed off to my house that was on the outskirts of the city.

We rolled up to my house and all of us got out of the car, "Hey DJ have you ever thought of living in the city rather than the countryside?" Makoto asked. We were standing in front of my giant house that was once a building for some antiques and stuff. Dustin and I had worked together to turn it into a house on the inside but on the outside it was just your square like building for the first floor and the top floor had a triangle shape for all of the bedrooms. "This house is really weirdly built you know." Dustin said looking at it.

The house had brown awnings, the boards were painted dark yellow, and there was two glass windows on the one side of the building. The front door was a giant brown wooden door and the upper part of the house was all dark yellow with a white rooftop. There was two windows one on each side which is where the bedrooms were located and there was this big space in between them. It wasn't a perfect looking place, but to me it was everything I needed. I saw the door open and my mother who was in her 60's came walking out as she wrapped her arms around me.

"Oh my goodness I was thinking you wouldn't show up. I see you guys got into another accident." Mom said as she was looking at my burns and Makoto's. Come inside and I'll put bandages on your arms and you guys can help me eat this lasagna." She said.

My mom had this curly grey hair, her veins were clearly visible on her skin, she had white fingernails stood about as tall as me, always wore polka dotted clothes, and black glasses. She was aware of my relationship with Dustin and was totally okay with it. She wasn't at first but came to love Dustin the more she got to know him. We all went inside and got prepared for dinner. My mom lived down the street at this old shack. All of us had offered to make it look like a home on the outside but she said she loved the old scenic appearance. The inside was livable but creeped a lot of people out. We actually cleaned up that place and gave it an old 30's like feel.

"So how goes the work down at the lab?" Mother said to us.

"Other than us getting close to burning to death we haven't made any progress." Dustin said jokingly. Makoto was sitting in between me and Dustin. She was trying to steal our pieces of lasagna. While I was thinking to myself about how I could get the Belt to work I didn't notice that Makoto was slowly stealing my food.

"Come on over here little lasagna. Straight to my plate." She said snickering. I then broke out of my concentration and took my fork and slapped her hand with it causing her to drop it and I slid my plate to catch it.

"Uh uh uh. That's my food you thief." I said. Makoto just laughed.

"Hahaha sharp as ever Deej." She said laughing.

"You guys look like kids from my perspective." Mother said to us.

"Yea well if that's the case I'm the closest to an adult compared to these two." Dustin said with a huge smile on his face.

The rest of our night was us goofing off and enjoying the night. Hours flew by like minutes and Makoto had taken my mom home as Dustin and I were hanging out in the living room. I was watching the news as more mysterious incidents began happening around town that were unexplainable. "We've got to do something against these Phantoms." I said aloud. I then saw next to me a guitar that Dustin had placed down that was hanging on the wall across from my study area.

"Don't worry we'll figure something out. There isn't a lot of Phantoms in the world. But we will become the hope for the people." Dustin said.

He then sat next to me as he started strumming the guitar. He was humming Bottom's Up by Brantley Gilbert as he strummed the guitar. I laid my head on his shoulder, "I can't believe it's been three years." I said to him. He stopped playing.

"Yea it has hasn't. I can't believe that I would fall in love with someone because he had such an amazing cowboy voice." He said with a snicker.

"Hey I took home the money pot that night." I said to him.

"Yea and then you spent it on more drinks. I had to give you a ride back here and take care of you that night. I still remember how you talked to me when you were drunk." He said smiling. I then stood up and began re-enacting that night.

"Oh why herrow there youg'un I do bewieve that you are more pwetty fan you're cowtoy boots. How about one moar drank pwetty man." I then fell on my back. "Oh geez I've seeme to have fallen on my back! Bottom's up boi's! HAHAHAHA." We then began laughing at my terrible performance.

"Yea you didn't make a lot of sense when you were drunk. I mean the moment we left the bar you looked at a police car and yelled "TAXI" at it. Then sobbed when it drove away." He said reminiscing those times.

"To be honest it looked like a bunny in my eyes hopping away." I said chuckling. Our laughters died shortly after that. I was looking up at the ceiling thinking about everything that went on today.

"It kind of sucks that the cords burned out. That's how we were going to transfer the power from the stones into the Belt. Without that we can't finish it." I said a bit depressed. I then looked at the clock and realized that it had been three hours since Makoto had left. "Hey where is Makoto?" I asked.

I then heard the door swing open and we saw Makoto storm through the door with some purple cracks on her hands. She was moaning in pain. She fell onto the ground and we got up and ran to her side. "MAKOTO! What happened to you?!" We said picking her up and putting her on the sofa. We inspected her right hand as she had these cracks on her hands that seemed to have stopped at her wrists.

"It hurts…It hurts….IT HURTS! OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP!" She said screaming. Suddenly the purple cracks vanished but left scars on her hand. Her pain seemed to have ceased too.

"What the hell was that?!" Dustin said. We begged for Makoto to speak up.

"I-I-I went back to the laboratory and I was trying to find a way to fix our problem but then I got mad and threw the ruby against the wall. A crack formed and I saw a purple stone inside. I reached for the stone and it materialized these four rings. After that a stream of purple light zoomed into the Belt. The stone then went inside me and it caused me to have these cracks form on my hand. I didn't even try to think of anything but to see you guys. I then started seeing in a reflection some monster that had a white body and a purple ball on its face. The images stopped once I walked through the door." Makoto said terrified.

"Okay buddy just rest okay? You're with friends now. We will protect you." I said to her as she started to close her eyes.

"I really appreciate that DJ. I know I can trust you guys. I love all of you." She said as she fell asleep.

Dustin and I looked at each other as she passed out. We went back to my room that was up in the attic. "Did you see her scars that just faded?" Dustin said to me.

"Also she said she saw a monster in a reflection on her way here. Was she attacked by a Phantom? We have to get that belt up and going. I'm going to head back to the lab and see what I can figure out." I said to him.

"No! Let's go together. It would be dangerous if something is to happen and you didn't have someone to protect you." He said.

We ran to my car and once we got to the car I saw someone else pull in. I turned around and saw Rachel, the coffee and bookstore owner of Grounds For Thought. "Hey DJ! Dustin! I just closed up shop early. Oh are you guys going back to the lab to work on that belt?" She said to us.

Rachel was a woman in her 30's about close to my age was white skinned and brown hair. She was wearing a white dress like shirt with blue jeans.

"Yea we are on our way. This is perfect timing. Makoto had an accident that happened could you possibly tag along with us? You are the only person who we can trust about this." I said to her. She was delighted to want to help as we all quickly gathered into my car and zoomed off. We caught Rachel up to date with what is going on including Makoto's accident. Once we got to the lab we saw someone's dark silhouette in the room. Dustin left my side as he went to flip on the light switch and when he did what we saw surprised the hell out of us.

"…Makoto…?" Dustin said as she was holding the belt in her hands. She had a ring that we never saw before on her right hand. It had a face guard on it and an orange jewel.

"I thought you were at our house sleeping?" I said to her. She had this wicked smile on her face as she placed the Belt on her waist. A belt strap formed around her and the belt was sitting perfectly on her.

"The story of what my clone said was true. But the Makoto you know is already gone. So should the clone at the house as well. I have perfected the Belt…No that's a terrible name…How about the Wizard Driver. Now that I have the power of mana I can finally be the "Hero" this town needs. Transform." Makoto said as she knocked the sides of the belt and before the jingle began we watched as a purple light emitted from the belt and consume Makoto. I tried to run towards her and pull the belt off of her but the purple light became a mist that sent me flying across the room. We then saw as a big purple magical stone came out of her pocket and flew into the mist. Makoto's screams began to fill the entire room. For a brief second we saw Makoto's face and her hand stretched out towards us.

"HELP ME! DJ PLEASE HELP ME! I'M LOSING MYSELF! HELP ME PLEASE!" She said as tears ran down her face. I quickly looked around and saw a pole next to Dustin who was a bit crouched over.

"Dustin! Toss me that pole! We need to get that belt off of her! Dustin NOW!" I demanded as he came back down to earth and tossed it to me. I grabbed it and ran towards her and had her reach out for the pole as the mist started producing little lightning bolts around her. "MAKOTO I'M GOING TO PULL YOU OUT! JUST HANG ON!" I said to her. Makoto was trying to hold on for dear life as I tried to pull her but was making no progress.

"I can't hold on! DJ don't let go please! I know what this power wants and if it wins I'm going to lose all of you! Please just don't let me go!" She said as she tried fighting. Dustin came up next to me and pulled with me trying to break her free from the mist.

"We're not going to let you go Makoto! We're your friends! We aren't going to let you go!" Dustin said as we started noticing her slowly coming out of the purple mist. The bolts of lightning began to shoot out towards us and it got Dustin which got sent flying.

"DUSTIN! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" I said to him.

"I'm alright…Just save Makoto!" He said.

I got a bit of Makoto's body out of the mist and when I did I saw giant purple cracks up to her neck. "It's already too late DJ…Please…Just do me a favor…" She said as she was sobbing a lot.

"No. You're coming back with us. I'm not going to leave someone I care about behind! You're going to come back with us! So don't give up!" I said trying to encourage her to fight. I then saw a look in her eyes that was even sadder. She then slowly let go of her hand from the pole.

"I love you…Now… RUN!" She said as the purple mist swallowed her whole and the last thing we heard was her final scream that shattered the glass in the lab.

The purple mist dispersed throughout the room, which sent me flying up against Rachel. "DJ! Oh my God are you okay?! DJ get up!" I quickly got up as I grabbed Rachel's shoulders.

"Rachel you need to run. You need to go now! Dustin and I are going to take care of this but we need to focus and can't if we have to protect you." I said to her. She tried to fight back not willing to leave. "YOU NEED TO GO NOW! JUST GO! HERE'S MY KEYS JUST GO BACK TO MY HOUSE! STAY THERE AND DON'T LET ANYONE IN!" I said as I shoved her away. She looked back at us and then ran up the stairs at the other end of the lab. I was still holding onto the pole and Dustin took out my knife that was in my pocket.

Makoto stood there with this evil expression on her face. "Ha Ha Ha! I can't believe how easy it was to kill her." She said. Once we heard that Dustin and I could feel our hearts tearing. Dustin reached out and grabbed my hand.

"She has become a Phantom." He said.

"No doubt about it. We need to strike her down before she transforms. Normal weapons don't work on Phantoms so we have to kill them while they are in their human form." I said to him.

Makoto reached her hand out to us and something formed out of her palm. It was a ring with a purple stone inside of it. The ring had something like fire on it. The ring then flew up and slid itself on her finger. Once that happened she knocked the levers down causing the hand to right to left.

 **"** **Lupacchi Magic! Touch to Go!**

 **Explosion, now."**

In just a second anything that was metal or had wires began exploding all around us. We quickly began running towards Makoto intent to kill. I swung the pole which she swept under it. She opened palmed me backwards as Dustin raised the knife and it was clearly going to hit her throat. She quickly grabbed his wrist and lift his arm up as she open palmed underneath his shoulder blade. This caused him to drop the knife and she kicked the back of his leg which caused him to stumble over and then roundhouse kicked him into the wall. She went to use the Explosion Ring again but I tackled her pushing her onto the floor. I then raised my fist as I tried to beat her face in but a white cloud formed around us and it stopped my attack. She then folded her legs back and kicked me off of her.

Her hand reached out again as another ring formed. The Explosion Ring slid itself off and the new one that was another purple with circles and an arrow going towards the center appeared. "I will cause you to despair DJ." She said. We didn't know what she meant but as I ran towards her she kicked me back and then walked towards me as she knocked the levers changing the hand to go right then left again. She went to kick me again but I had grabbed her leg and moved towards her to elbow punch her in the face. But she broke her leg free and then kicked me across the jaw with the same leg. She then kicked me again but this time in my rib cage and quickly scanned the ring over the singing belt.

 **"** **Teleport, now."**

She then had this smile on her face as she vanished in a bright light and then re-appeared with my mother laid out on the floor. "What the hell are you about to do?!" Dustin yelled as he just tried getting up but was in a lot of pain. Then we saw her pull out this white cane looking like weapon and lifted it up over my mother's back. Mom finally looked around as she started to freak out and I saw something getting thrown at me and I saw my knife. I quickly upon grabbing it threw the weapon at Makoto as it made contact in her shoulder. I then ran towards her as I punched her across the jaw and then cocked my fist at my hip and then punched her in the gut. I reached for the knife and ripped it out of her shoulder and placed it into the opposite one, "You're not going to hurt my mother!" I said as I tried to force the blade further into her skin.

I then got an uppercut to my jaw causing me to stumble back. Makoto then bent backwards as she kicked me in the jaw causing me to backflip onto the ground and rolled up against my mom. She looked so terrified. "DJ! What the hell is going on?!" She said scared. I then looked around as Makoto had vanished. I quickly took this time to get all of us off the ground and started moving to the exit.

"I'll explain everything later just follow me. We are getting out of here." I said as we all slowly made our way to the entrance.

 **"** **Explosion, now."**

A purple spell circle appeared at the door and exploded as we all got sent flying down the stairs. I wrapped my arms around my mother as I cushioned the impact down the stairs. We then saw Makoto approach us. "You guys aren't leaving until I unseal Dragon from his slumber in that red magical stone. I will raise an army of Phantoms to take over this world. I will cause the extinction of the human race and become the new God for the world of Phantoms. Dragon has just enough power to help create the Holy Eclipse that will wipe out civilization. DJ you are the only one who knows how to extract the power from the stone. Extract the power and I will let you all go safe and sound."

"That's bullshit Makoto! If I help you we all die later. Your logic makes no damn sense." I said to her.

"I see that I will have to make you see things my way then. I will wipe out Dustin first, and then your mother, followed by everyone else you hold so dear to you." Makoto said as her white weapon materialized in her hand. "I will use this Hamel Cane to do exactly that." She said as she threw the weapon at me. My mom broke free from my grip and ran to push Dustin out of the way as the weapon impaled her shoulder and she fell to the ground.

"MOTHER!" I said as I ran towards her. Makoto was quick as she grabbed me by the throat and pinned me up against the wall. I was losing oxygen quick but before I was to blackout I saw something like purple cracks appear over my mom.

"I can't lose my son. He is my greatest hope in the world." She said heaving heavily. Makoto then dropped me onto the ground as she looked at her.

"She is despairing." Makoto said.

The purple cracks then turned into a black color and were bigger than the ones Makoto. I felt something inside me snap. I then watched Dustin get his strength back and grab me. "We need to go DJ! WE NEED TO GO NOW!" He said as we started running from Makoto…And my mother. I didn't want to leave her but I had too. Tears rolling down my face and while running we had sparks flying everywhere and little explosions going on. I had fallen to the ground as I just couldn't find the strength to move anymore. We were pretty far from Makoto and mom but I then heard a scream that echoed throughout the entire lab. Dustin tried picking me back up but when he did I noticed I too had the purple cracks on my hands. "Oh my God…" Dustin said.

"Am I going to die?" I said to him. He then had me use him as a crutch, "Not if I have anything to say about DJ." He said as we tried to find a way out of the lab. We got to a giant vent that was in the wall and he walked up to the hole that had a metal barricade on it and started to pull it off.

"We can escape out the tunnel here. Hope you're not afraid of dirty spaces." Dustin said. He broke the barricade and tried to get me inside. Once someone goes in you would slide down and won't stop until you came out near one of the factories in the countryside. The closest one was out by Meijer's. "Okay DJ you go in first. I'm going to grab that table over there and hide this hole so we can have a running start.

"No, no, no Dustin I need you to stay right next to me. Please. I'm too scared. Please just stay next to me." I said begging him. He then looked around and realized we were going to have to work together to get the stuff off the table. It had a bunch of equipment and tools on it.

"Okay I need you to come help me we don't have much time." Dustin said as I tried to stand up and clear the giant table off. Dustin and I were on opposite ends of the table.

"I don't want to lose you Dustin. Promise me we are going to get out of here together. Don't leave me alone please." I said as I was becoming more emotionally broken. Dustin got the last thing off and came up to me as he grabbed my hand and closed it with his.

"DJ I'm not leaving you okay. We are going to get through this together. But I need you to be strong right now and help me move this ta-." I then saw Dustin's eyes widen and a red spot appear on his chest. Blood slowly streamed down his mouth. "R-R-Ru-Run…" He said as he fell but I ended up catching him in my arms. In his back was a black angelic like feather I then slowly looked up to see an angel Phantom standing in the corner of the room.

"He's right you know. You should run, make this a lot more fun for me to hunt you down…Son." The phantom said as purple mist formed around it and revealed my mother. Makoto appeared behind the angel.

"What a waste. Vanity please control yourself. There isn't many Phantoms around and for my plan to be put in place I need more. So killing them would not do." She said as they began to slowly walk towards me. Dustin quickly got up and kicked the table at them causing them to get sent flying onto the ground. He then grabbed me as he got me to the hole and shoved me on the ground. Once I was on the ground he lifted his leg.

"DUSTIN! COME WITH ME WE CAN TREAT YOU AT THE HOSPITAL!" I screamed at him terrified at what was going to happen. He took out something from his upper chest pocket and threw it at me. It was a picture of me and him on one of our dates I had my arms around his shoulder and we were both smiling. I looked up at him, "No you can't be serious." I said to him. He then kicked me down the hole.

"LIVE DJ! LIVE!" He said yelling in the hole as he fell to the ground covering up the hole his dying body. I was tumbling around in the pipe until my back hit something hard. It was another ventilation bar and when I turned around to kick it out I noticed that the thing sent us further underground. I knew this because in the middle of this big room lied the ruby magical stone that we used to channel power to the Wizard Driver.

"There is a ventilation shaft in this room? I never noticed it before. I thought I was supposed to emerge outside?" I said. I kicked the bars as hard as I could using my anger and pain as my source of strength. The bar went flying across the room and I jumped down. My knees were wobbling and my heart ripping itself apart but I still walked up to the stone. I felt pain on my arm as I looked to see that the cracks got bigger and now were up to my shoulder. A bright light started to illuminate the room from the giant crystal and I walked towards it. I reached out and put my hands on the stone and nothing happened. I then heard a voice speak up from the stone.

"I see you are disturbing my slumber once again." The deep voice said. I quickly backed up as I almost fell on the ground.

"Who the hell are you? The stone never talked before." I said to it.

"My name is Dragon. I am a Phantom that was sealed away in here by a powerful mage. I see you have been syphoning my power, tell me why." Dragon said.

"We are trying to use your power to protect people from Phantoms. We almost succeeded but one of my comrades got possessed by dark magic and is now trying to kill me. She already killed two people who meant the world to me. I am now having these purple scars appear all over my body." I said to him.

"Those purple scars are proof that you are despairing. Once they connect all over your body you will die and give birth to a Phantom that lives inside of you. Thanks to you three meddling in magic you have caused this entire town to become affected and most of the citizens have become Gates. Gates are people who have a Phantom lying dormant inside of them. Once they despair they will go through the process like you and unless the Phantom inside them is destroyed then they will die. Their human side long lost and forever be monsters. So congratulations human, in the efforts to save people you have made them victims." He said.

I felt the cracks quickly spread all over my body as I fell to my knees in pain. The pain became unbearable and the more cracks there was the more powerful the pain was. "Is this what it means to despair? Am I really going to die and give rise to a Phantom?" I said as tears ran down my face.

"There is nothing you can do. Humans are weak when they despair and possess no strong enough power to overcome it. There is nothing you can do now except give up your life." I heard Makoto say as she walked into the room with Vanity. I was now having trouble trying to even look up at her.

"You're wrong! I'm stronger than this! I'm a stronger person! I'm not like you!" I said as I tried to fight back against the pain.

"You're weak and pathetic. You don't have anyone to rely on. Makoto is dead, your mother is dead, and Dustin is dead. Poor human dying from blood loss, I expected him to turn into a Phantom but no. I am curious to what Phantom you will give rise too. Just give in, it's a lot easier that way." Makoto said to me.

I didn't want to give in but I had no idea how to fight against this kind of magic. The cracks had made their way up to my face and everything around me was starting to fade to black. "I just wanted to save human lives. I wanted to protect mankind no matter the cost. But now I'm going to lose everything. I don't know what to do. I'm all alone now. Maybe it would be better to just give in." I said as everything around me went black. I could feel the pain in my body lessen and my heart getting ready to stop beating. All around me was nothing but pure black like someone turned off all the lights. I couldn't even see my body anymore. But then I felt something wrap underneath my arms and made me stand up. A faint light was standing right in front of me and then two more showed up.

"DJ." The three lights were saying to me. I knew those voices. They were Makoto, mom, and Dustin. I blinked and all three of them like spirits stood in front of me.

"Am I dead?" I asked them. Makoto came up to me as she slapped me across the face.

"YOU NEED TO MAN UP!" She said to me.

Dustin then looked at me, "DJ I didn't give my life up so you could die. We need you to keep living. You have to live through all of this. Your journey is not over yet." He said to me.

"There is still hope. You need to find a boy who has high mana and help guide him. He will be the world's greatest hope but only if you live." Makoto said to me.

"A boy? Do you guys know how vague that is?"

"The boy will have lost his parents due to a Phantom attack. The accident will happen on a bridge. At that moment you must seek the boy out and be there for him and guide him to become the hope for this city. He alone is enough to fix the mess you guys are in." Mom said to me.

"In order for me to find this child I have to overcome the situation I am in and I don't have the power to do so. I'm already dying so what good am I right now?" I said to them.

"Live. The boy is going to need you DJ. You need to overcome your despair and fight back." They all said to me.

Makoto then walked up to me, "Let us help you one final time. We will help you through this. Your friends and family are here for you DJ." She said.

"When you can't stand on your own two feet." My mom went to carry on the sentence.

"Then we will be here for you." Dustin said as they became balls of light and flew right into my body. I was then returned to where I was in that room with Vanity and Makoto looming over me.

"It's almost time. Now give in DJ! Give into the despair and become my new Phantom!" Makoto said as she began laughing hysterically.

I reached my hand up and put it on the stone as I used it to lift myself up off the ground.

"Things aren't going to the way you plan on it. I still have a life to live. I'm not going to give up, not here and not now! I am going to overcome this and I will set things right!" I said as I screamed in pain afterwards. A bright light illuminated the room and the purple cracks began to vanish. I reached my hand out as the cracks vanished at the palm of my hand and a giant black stone emerged from my hand. It began to grow bright as it sent out a pulse towards Makoto sending her flying but Vanity was trying to stand her ground from the blast.

"VANITY! WE NEED THAT STONE! STRIKE HIM DOWN AND ABSORB THE POWER FROM THAT STONE!" She said as she was being pinned to the wall by the mana that was still raging out of my stone. I then looked at the stone and raised my other hand and placed my hand on it. The stone then vanished in a bright light which pissed Makoto off.

"NOOOO! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!" She roared at me.

I slowly looked over to her, "I sent it somewhere that you won't be able to find it. That power does not belong to either of us. As for you Vanity I'm sending you somewhere where you can't hurt anyone." I said. Vanity threw her angel wing feathers at me but right before they hit me a black screen of smoke appeared in front of me and caught the feathers. The black stone started to shrink and I knew that the more I used it the smaller it became.

The feathers disintegrated in the smoke and I ran towards Vanity as I placed my hand on her throat and slammed her back into the wall and right next to the pinned Makoto. "What are you going to do to me DJ? Are you going to kill me? You can't because I am your mother remember?" Vanity said as it transformed back into my mother.

"You're not my mother." I said through my teeth.

Black mana swarmed up my arm and covered Vanity. "What are you doing to me?!" She screamed.

"I'm going to bury you where nobody can find you. You will forever rest and the only way you can break free from your slumber is through my stone. You will never harm anyone ever again!" I said as her body began to de-materialize into nothingness. I saw her body turning into a coffin and sent it under the house that my mother lived in hopes no one will ever find her. I then looked at Makoto as she had this fearful look on her face. I didn't have the power to do anything to her.

"What are you going to do to me DJ? Huh?" She said. I then looked up at the ceiling.

"You will be left to rot in here. All alone in this cellar that will become an endless cave. A barrier will be put up so that no one enters and this will be your place of banishment. You will no longer be able to harm anyone ever again." I said as the place began to collapse and I used my last bit of power to teleport myself out as I heard Makoto scream my name. I had vanished and materialized into my house. I had landed hard onto the ground as my body began to shake violently. Rachel ran up to me as she helped me off the floor and moved me to the sofa.

"Holy shit DJ are you okay?" She said as she ran to get me a glass of water. My violent shaking wasn't stopping and I was looking all around for my stone as I pulled it out of my pocket. The stone that was the size of my head had shrunken into the size of my hand. I held tightly as the stone shrunk about two inches more as my body began to calm down. Rachel was impressed by this sight. "DJ…is that magic?" She asked as my body began producing sweat but I finally had calmed down.

"Yes…But it seems I can do whatever I want before the stone vanishes." I said to her. I started to feel my eyes getting heavy as I was drained from everything that went on. My eyes started to close as Rachel was calling out my name numerous times. "I just need sleep." I mumbled as I fell asleep.

Days had zoomed by afterwards. I knew that I needed to wait on a boy who would come to possess Dragon but I didn't know what to do in the meantime. I turned the desk area in the living room into a ring making room after I had found a magical stone outside my house one day when I was mowing. The pain of losing my loved ones never left and stayed etched into my very heart. Months had gone by and thanks to my black stone I had found more magical stones lying around Bowling Green. Pretty hidden at that as well. I knew I would need to make them stones one day so I kept them hidden in my house. I kept my eyes on the news and voices from around town for any accident that may come from this prophecy. Nothing had happened for the next few years, and then it happened.

I had heard the news one day but didn't know how to find this child. I was walking around town about a week after the accident and when I did I walked pass a boy who was trying to find a job of some sort. His ability to socialize with people was terrible. I had at this time got a job at The Blade which was having plans on becoming The Sentinel Tribune. I had known this child was the one I was looking for because after the guy he was talking to in the downtown district turned him down because he was too young ran off, I walked over to the business man.

"Hey what was that all about?" I asked him.

The white man in a black business suit turned around and faced me. "Oh you heard that huh? That boy is fifteen not even legal for 98% of the places here in town to hire him. I've heard bits of his terrible past. His parents had gotten into that horrible accident recently. The car went flying right off the bridge and then got impacted by a semi-truck that took the car about ten miles down the road before it could stop. Horrible thing for a child to go through. I wish I could help him you know?" The guy said to me.

I looked at the boy and quickly ran towards him. I had finally caught up to him on the corner of Wooster and Main street. He was just getting ready to walk across the street. "Hey kid!" I called out to him. The boy stopped and turned around to me.

"Yea what do you want?" He said to me.

"Hey I heard you are looking for a job. I can give you a paper route job at The Blade if you'd like. I can have you start in two days. My name is Daniel J. Belzung, but everyone calls me DJ." I said as I put my hand out to him.

"Are you serious?! You'll give me a job?" He said surprised.

"Yes. I'm the hiring manager over there you will work for four hours a day every day and I'll pay you over minimum wage by .45 cents. So what do you say?" I said to him. The boy didn't need to think about anything else he quickly reached and grabbed my hand as he shook it.

"I would love that very much." He said with a smile on his face.

"What's your name sir?" I asked.

"My name is Travis Edge." He responded back.

After that it was only seven months later when Travis went to that cave exploration and shortly after that arrived at my door given a note by what I knew was Makoto. I had vowed to help Travis fight back the Phantoms and for once in a long time I felt like I was doing the right thing. "One day I will tell Travis everything about what's going on." I said in my head.

(Travis's Viewpoint)

The memory we all had seen faded to black and we were returned to the present time. The ring in my hand shattered to pieces leaving only a fragment of the black magical stone. The death of DJ was hitting us even harder now.

"I never would've known that DJ was holding all that inside. He was always chipper and happy no matter what." Mark said holding back his tears.

"I wonder if DJ knew that his time was near." Robin said wiping her eyes.

I held the fragmented rock out in front of me, "I swear to you DJ. I'm going to kill every last Phantom." I said as a single tear ran down my face. Then a bright light formed from the fragment rock and it levitated out of my hand and out erupted DJ looking like he did back in his memories.

"If you guys are seeing this then it means that I have died or something bad has happened to me. These are my parting words for you all. My final goodbyes. I will start with Mark." DJ said as he looked at Mark.

"You have a lot to learn but I am happy that you and Travis have rekindled your friendship. Please watch over everyone in my stead. Never give up on your friends or yourself. I have watched you grow these seven months and you have a bright future ahead of you." DJ said. Mark couldn't hold back his tears any longer.

"Thank you DJ…I'm going to miss you too." Mark said crying. DJ then faced Robin.

"Robin. You have been through so much but have become so much stronger because of it. I want you to keep your head up and never give in to the negative this world has to offer. Keep that head up and look over Travis and the others." He said to her.

"I will protect them DJ. No matter what it takes." She said. DJ then face Rachel.

"In my darkest times and when I felt like I couldn't make it you gave me hope. You helped me through some rough moments after losing my loved ones. I wish you the best and for your shop to grow and blossom. You have been the best support I could ever have." He said.

"You don't know how much I love those words DJ." She said as she cried. DJ face Karina.

"Karina, you have grown to be a wonderful person. Your love for Travis is amazing and I enjoy how much you care for everyone else here. Always remember to stand strong and never give up even in the darkest of times." He said to her.

"I'll never forget you DJ." She said. DJ then faced Manuela and I.

"Travis I wished I could tell you the truth. I wish I could be here by your side right now. I saw you like my own son during the past year and wanted to do my best to keep you safe. I know I have kept things from you and I'm sorry for that. You have a good circle of friends and I will hope that one day you guys will right my wrongs. I have watched you grow over this year and I can't help but feel extremely proud of you. Manuela, you have had it just as hard as everyone here. I am sorry for you and everyone here who has become a victim of my own creation and misdeeds. I never wanted you guys to go through any of this. Travis is great to have you as a girlfriend and he needs you more than ever. I want you to protect him, cherish him, care for him. When he strays from his path I know that you will be there to bring him right back. You have such a bright future ahead of you and I hope that you and Travis will never lose that love. Seeing you two be together these past few months remind me so much about me and Dustin and it's a great feeling as well as a sight to see." He said.

"I promise to be by his side." Manuela said as she held my hand tightly.

"I wish you were still here DJ. I'm always going to miss you." I said to him. DJ then faced Shawn.

"Shawn. I have one thing to say to you. You have been going so well on your journey of growing up and becoming an amazing person. I have been training you to make rings using some of my power and now you are ready. I want you to take my place as Ring Maker. When I vanish this stone will embed you with all the power you need to make rings and help Travis on his quest. I couldn't have chosen anyone else as my successor and I know that you will do well. Never give up on yourself and become the best that I know you can be." DJ said to him.

Shawn broke down harder than the rest of us. "DJ…DJ I swear to you I will not fail…I'm honored that you hold me in a high regard…I will not fail you…" He said as tears ran down his face.

DJ then looked at all of us as he had a huge smile on his face. "I hope no matter what happens to me I will never regret being friends with either of you. I love all of you. Goodbye." He said as he smiled and waved at us. Right before he vanished you could tell that a tear ran down his face. The black stone that was left turned into a bright light that swarmed around Shawn and vanished inside him.

The rest of the day was us mourning for our friend as his last words stayed stuck in our heads. The love DJ had given us will last forever.


	13. The Damaged Family

Author's Note: From here on out I'm going to be writing Wizard chapters as well as working on Power Rangers Dinothunder. PRDT will not be in the same universe as Masked Rider Wizard but be it's own separate thing. I bring this up because PRDT will get mentioned in this chapter. PRDT will be one book 22 chapters. I will have the chapter uploaded hopefully in the next month. I'm hoping that once I get the chapter up I'll have the next chapter for Wizard up which will a Valentine's Day chapter as well as a break from the heavy stuff that has been going on. It will also be a chapter focused on Manuela. Thanks so much for reading this far and enjoy this chapter!

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It was January 25th, 2015. Mark and I had been looking all around town for Phantoms and had encountered a few. We had taken them all down without any trouble. Each one we took down we demanded to know where Vanity is. But every Phantom either didn't know or shuddered at the name and refused to speak. Mark and I were sitting outside of Grounds for Thought as he was drinking some coffee and I was eating a Plain Sugar Donut. "In the past three days that had to be the third Phantom we've found and no clue to where Vanity is hiding." Mark said irritated.

"I know. That last one seemed to know something but refused to talk. But the other two didn't know a damn thing we said. Why would the Phantom community not be aware of Vanity? Why keep it a secret?" I said wondering.

"Maybe Medusa and that Phoenix guy might know. Maybe we should pursue those—" Mark said but I interrupted him.

"NO! I would love to avoid those two as much as possible. Especially Medusa." I said angrily.

Since Dark Wizard was extracted out of me, I've had this immense fear of Medusa and Phoenix. Plus for some reason I still couldn't shake what Amber had done to me. I knew I needed to get over it but it was just too hard for me at the moment. My phone began ringing and I noticed it was Shawn.

"Hey Shawn any new leads for us?" I asked him.

Mark looked up at me with these doggy eyes hoping for some good news.

"No. But I did make a new ring. I just finished it. These powers DJ gave me have been great. I can make rings quicker than normal." Shawn said excitingly on the phone. I told him we'd be right there.

"So any new leads? I hope it's a powerful Phantom because these last two have been super weak. Chimera gets hungry quicker than usual since their mana's are super weak." He said excitedly.

"No apparently Shawn made a new ring. Hop on we going over there." I said. Mark's giant smile turned into a frown real quick.

"But…But…But Phantoms…AGH okay let's go." Mark said whining.

We got on my bike and sped off back to DJ's house. Once we got inside Shawn ran up to me at the door as all of our friends came out. "I think we should try this outside. I don't know what kind of spell it is but I think we should try it out here in the open." Shawn suggested.

"I think that's a good idea." I responded.

Shawn handed me the ring and I got a nice look at it. It had a blue gemstone and the circumference of the ring had these little lines like that of a clock. In the middle of the ring was a dragon's head and a bad drawing of its body. I slid the ring on my finger and scanned it.

 **"** **Time, please."**

I started to feel something rising inside of me and as I casted the spell I immediately vanished from everyone. I was being thrown somewhere else. All I could see around me was blue and white everywhere and then I was thrown hard on my back. I got up off the ground in pain as I looked around to see where I was at. When I did I heard three motorbikes zooming past me. Each bike was a different color and looked like they were dinosaur themed. There was a blue, yellow and red on. The people in them had this weird dinosaur foot on their chest which their uniforms were bright spandex like colors but I couldn't make out anymore. "Where the hell am I?" I said as I looked around to see what looked like Bowling Green but I was never told of weird people like this in my town. Curious to what was going on I took out my Connect Ring and scanned it as I grabbed my bike to head off towards them.

(Mark's Viewpoint)

We watched Travis vanish in this bright light and didn't know where he went. "Umm okay Travis that's funny and all but why don't you come out now." I said. All of us just stared and watched for a while but nothing was happening. "Umm Travis…Are you here?" I said as I waved my hand all around where Travis was standing. I then saw Travis's red spell circle appear next to his bike as he reached out and grabbed it and pulled it in. "If Travis is grabbing his bike then he must be getting ready for a battle." I thought. I ran toward the circle hoping to go through it before it closed but I didn't make it in time. "You know I wish I had a ring that connects where I want it too." I said sighing.

We tried calling Travis but our calls weren't going through. We tried to figure out ways to get to him but there was nothing we could do. We rummaged through the Wizard Chest and found the Time Ring. I tried to scan it but we weren't getting the ring to scan over my belt. "Gyah! My belt can only register rings if I input them into the belt. The only rings that it will scan is my Driver On and Engage." I said feeling defeated. We then noticed a specific ring that was in the holders on the top of the chest vanished and we knew which ring that was.

"Isn't that the Dark Strike Ring? I thought Travis wasn't going to use that at all?" Karina said worried. We all knew the story about how dangerous this ring is when Travis came back to us back in August. He also said that he would never use it because it greatly bothered him for some reason. He left it in the ring holder inside the chest.

"If Travis is going to use this ring, does that mean he's in danger?" Shawn said with his hand over his mouth.

"We need to find out where Travis is." Manuela said determined.

"Hey what is up with the crystal ball Karina?" Robin said. We all turned around as Karina ran to her ball.

"Um guys that red Phantom Phoenix is causing some issues at the West Gypsy Lane Condos." Karina said.

"Mark get in my car. I'll take you there. It's just down the road." Robin said.

We ran out to her squad car and she flipped her sirens on as she put the pedal to the medal and we were off down the countryside road. It didn't take long for us to get to the destination and when we did I quickly hopped out of the car and ran in random directions until I found Phoenix chasing a mom and her kid.

The kid was crying his eyes out. He was wearing an red and grey soccer uniform while his mother was wearing a white dress shirt with brown pants on. Both were white skinned and the mother had had blonde hair while her son had brown hair. The kid was probably about 7 years old, and the mom looking like she was in her thirties. The mother was standing in front of her son shaking violently as she tried to protect them.

"Step away from the kid woman. I'm here to make him despair and become one of us." Phoenix said. The mother was trying to keep face as Phoenix slowly walked towards her. I started running and the moment he placed her hands on her throat, I put my head down and wrapped my arms around Phoenix's waist as I started bull rushing him away from the family. Phoenix tripped and I pushed him onto the ground.

"You're not going to hurt this family bird." I said to him.

"And who the hell are you?! Lemme guess you're the Ring Bearing Magician that has been causing a lot of hell for us Phantoms aren't you?" Phoenix said as I slowly walked backwards to the family. I looked over my shoulder towards them.

"You two need to get moving right now. Get going!" I commanded them. The mom grabbed her kid and they got inside her car as she quickly started it up and drove. I looked back at Phoenix and he shot a ball of fire at me. I quickly rolled to the side to dodge it.

"Hahaha! You did exactly what I wanted you to do." Phoenix said.

I looked over and saw the ball of fire hit the back end of the car causing the car to flip in the air and land on it's side. A few people started running out of their condos and when I looked back I saw Phoenix laughing.

"You can fight me and lose or you can watch that family die. Choice is yours hero." He said. He started walking towards me but I knew that I needed to save the family first. I quickly turned away from him as I started running to the car. When I looked back I saw that Phoenix had vanished.

"I'm pathetic." I said under my breath.

I got to the car and looked through the window. The car was slowly gathering flames and the mom was just barely conscious. She was looking around for her son. Her son was knocked out in the back seat wrapped up in his seat belt. She was trying to get out of her seat belt but it was jammed. I raised my hand and pounded the glass breaking it while the mom looked the other way so she wouldn't get glass on her face. "You need to save my son! Save him first!" She said crying. I then overheard someone scream out to me.

"You need to get out of there! The fire is going to explode the car!" I reached over and took out a pocket knife I carried and started cutting through the seat belt.

"No! Please! Save my son!" She said as she started hitting me.

"Ma'am If we get out of this it's not going to be one person being saved, but all of us. I'm going to save your kid but I need you to calm down and cooperate with me." I said to her. The lady took a deep breath and started helping me get her out of the car. She was able to crawl out with my help and then I jumped into the car as I got to the back seat of the passenger side and tried to get the kid out of the car.

He was knocked out unconscious with blood rolling down his head. I placed my fingers on his neck checking for a pulse. His pulse was faint but there. I unbuckled him and picked him up. I maneuvered to the front of the car as I jumped out the car just barely missing the window. I did get a cut on my leg from the glass but ignored the pain as I ran away from the car. At this point the car's flame were starting to overwhelm the vehicle but someone was smart enough to come out with a fire extinguisher and started putting the fire out before the car could get a chance to explode. The mom came running up to me with some blood streams on her face as she grabbed her son out of my arms.

"Ken! Kenny! Oh my baby boy wake up please!" She said trying to wake him up.

I heard an ambulance come zooming by as I started dusting myself off. I then looked in the direction where Phoenix was standing, "You better believe that the next time I see you I will take your life away from you. It's one thing to hurt an adult, but hurting a child is something completely different." I said vowing myself to ending Phoenix.

The ambulance came and got the mom and kid. I requested to be in the ambulance to make sure that the two were going to be okay. I stayed with them for about a few hours to make sure the kid was going to make it out of this okay.

(Phoenix's Viewpoint)

I had walked back into the cave to be greeted by Medusa. "Phoenix where have you been?" She said tapping her feet.

"Oh chillax Serpent of Lust, I took care of your work for you." I said to her. Medusa than whipped me with one of her snakes on her head but the pain didn't even faze me.

"I've told you to stop calling me that! I don't give a damn if you can revive, you know that if you piss me off I can report you to Wiseman. You may be immortal but when compared to Wiseman's power, your about as weak as the worms you step all over while you're out there doing whatever the hell you feel like!" She said rudely.

"Well I have nothing to worry about huh? Wiseman hasn't shown his face in almost a week. For all I know he could've been done in by Gay Flashy Mage." I said laughing. I then got whipped with more snakes causing enough damage to make me kneel. "Oh I'm sorry I forgot you still had feelings for the one who has been murdering us for almost the past year." I said to her.

"You will refrain from pissing me off." She said as she walked past me.

"Was he that good in the bed if you are so prune on sticking around with him?! Just remember, Travis has to die for our plan to come to fruition. How can you still love someone that once dies, and becomes Dragon, would ever be the same? Dragon will become one of us! The Phantoms will rise up out of this cave! We will be the strongest living thing in existence!" I said laughing maniacally as Medusa walked out of the cave.

"I wonder if our Master knows that you have developed human feelings for the Mage. I guess only time will tell. But Medusa you should know that I haven't been for almost the past year be just taking your abuse and walking away from it being the coward you may think I am. Oh no, I've been waiting for a chance for you to slip up. Just imagine what kind of power and praise I'll receive from Master Wiseman when I'm the one who destroys Wizard or Beast when you obviously can't. Plus when I do what you can't, I'LL be the one calling the shots! You will have to listen to what I say! We will see how you like things when the shoe is put on the other foot!" I said as I started punching the wall.

I then felt someone else's presence enter the room. It was a presence that was just as terrifying as our Master Wiseman, I slowly turned around to an angelic black and white winged Phantom. "Who the hell are you?" I asked. The feathers on the Phantom's back became chain like as the wrapped around my waist and started sucking mana from me. This Phantom sucked mana until I had only a drop left.

"You really have a foul mouth don't you? I guess Wiseman was right about the dog that is all bark and no bite. I am your replacement, the name is Vanity. Starting immediately you Phoenix, are demoted from General, to that of a pawn. You are now to be treated as a normal Phantom, regardless of your powers and pathetic stature." She said looking down at me.

"When the hell did you join us?" I said to her with rage forming inside of me.

"Last week. Anymore questions child?" She said.

I became irritated at how she was acting to me. I tried to break out of the chains but nothing I was doing was working. "You have got to be fucking kidding me!" I yelled out at her. Vanity then lifted me up with her feathers still wrapped around me and slammed me hard into the wall. She let her chains go as I reverted back to my human form. Vanity walked up to me and grabbed me by my hair.

"You look more pathetic as a human being than you do in your Phantom form, Tyler Cox." She said as she let go of my hair. She then stood up, "Get the hell out of this cave. I don't want to see your pompous face anymore." She said. I got up and began stumbling out of the place as blood was streaming down my arm. When I did Medusa in her human form stood there with a smirk on her face and then waved goodbye to me. Right before I left she blew a kiss at me and that irritated the hell out of me.

"I swear there will come a time when you too will go through what I'm going through. When that happens I'll be there laughing for every moment." I said to her with rage.

"I'm not a pathetic loser like you. So I'm not at all worried about what's going to happen to me." She said as she walked back into the cave. Once she left I went to the hospital.

"Maybe if I make that family despair I will finally get some fucking recognition." I said stumbling to the hospital.

(Mark's Viewpoint)

I was sitting in the waiting room with the child still passed out. The mom went out to Mcdonald's getting her son food for when he wakes up. I was still beating myself up for my foolish mistake. "Phantoms that have elemental powers normally have control over their powers. That's something I should've thought but I wanted to beat Phoenix because he was a serious threat. He lured me into a painful choice and I chose wrong." I said resting my head on my fingers.

An hour had gone by since we got here. The heart monitor was beeping normally and the doctors said he was going to be totally fine. He had scratches all over his body but with how young he was he would make a full recover before the end of the week. I heard a cough as the child woke up and started moving a bit in her bed.

"Where's mom?" He asked. I got up and walked next to him.

"You're mom went out and got some food for you. She should be back any moment now." I assured him.

"I don't want anything to happen to her. She's all I have left." He said weakly.

"You're father isn't in the picture?" I asked him.

"My father got into a car accident six months ago. It tore me and my mother apart. We've been getting by with each other dealing with the hurt." He said.

"How old are you?" I asked him.

"I'm nine years old. I'm going to turn ten in two months." He said back.

"That's gotta be rough. I lost my parents when I was your age. I lost them to a monster similar to the one that tried to kill you guys." I said to him.

"What did you do?" He asked me.

"I found somebody who I traveled with. She was such a strong woman. She felt like a sister to me. I was with her for about five years. She helped me stand up on my feet and taught me how to survive with what little I had. We traveled through many states." I said to him.

"Are you still with her?" He asked.

The pain that question hit me close to home. I couldn't tell him that she died protecting me. I then looked at my belt and reached into my pocket as I grabbed my Lion Ring and squeezed it in my hand. I then looked at the kid, "Yea she is. She will never leave." I said to him. "She will live on in my memories." I thought to myself.

"My mom is strong too. She works a lot and does everything to keep us strong. I want to be just like her when I get older. I took up soccer because of my father. I'm not all that good but I know with hard work I'll get there someday. As long as my mother is there cheering me on, I'll become a great soccer player just like my dad." He said with some fire in his eyes. I then heard the door open as the mother came in.

"Oh I'm glad to see your finally awake sweetie. Here I got you those chicken nuggets and milk that you like." She said as she sat down giving him food.

"Thanks mom!" He said as she gave him a hug. The mom took something out of the bag and threw it at me.

"I thought you might be hungry and since you saved us I had to find a way to repay you." She said. I looked into the brown bag to see fries, chocolate milk, and another box that said Big Mac on it. I looked up at the lady and thanked her deeply for her kindness. I began eating with the family as we had a fun time joking and discussing a lot of things. We were having a blast and I was hoping that this day would never end.

I got up as it was in the middle of the afternoon, "I should get back to my friends. I never got back with them so I should go." I said. The family waved me goodbye as I left the room and got to the entrance doors. When I did I heard screaming behind me. When I turned around I saw stuff getting thrown and I ran back in as a person got thrown onto the floor. Phoenix was standing over the person with his blade to his throat.

"You're going to tell me where the little boy and mom that came in a few hours ago is located and I might just spare your life." He threatened.

I bull rushed him into the side. I then looked at everyone in the hospital, "Get somewhere safe! Now!" I demanded. I then looked at Phoenix, "I fell for your trap earlier. But not anymore, I will kill you right here and now." I reached into my pocket to pull out my Driver On ring. When I did Phoenix swung his sword sending a gust of wind that sent me flying to the other side of the room. I stood up wanting to attempt me transforming again.

"I won't let you transform Ring Bearing Magician. You have put a lot of my fellow brothers to their deaths. I will end that now." He said as summoned a ball of fire and chucked it at me. I then watched as the mom rushed into the room and pushed me to the side but got grazed by the fire. The force of Phoenix's attack sent her flying against the wall knocking her out cold.

"Hey! No this isn't good! Hey wake up! Wake up!" I said trying to shrug her. She had some burns on her shoulder from the attack. I then looked down the hall to see Ken in his normal clothes, "They must've discharged him before Phoenix assaulted the hospital!" The kid then ran towards us and when he did Phoenix sent another ball of fire, but this time at the kid. Ken didn't see the ball coming towards him as he was to focused on his mother. I ran as I activated my belt.

 **"** **Driver On"**

I grabbed the kid as we just barely dodged the ball. He was fighting to get out of my arms. The ball of fire hit the wall leaving a giant burn mark on it. Ken was fighting to get out of my arms and he did. He ran to his mother as he tried to wake her up. He then stopped moving as I heard cracks forming on his body.

"Mom…Wake up please…" He said as he started crying. "I don't' want to lose you too…Mom…Don't leave me alone…" He said as the cracks started quickly forming on his body.

"What are you going to do Mage? Will you fight me and lose, or will you watch as a new Phantom is born?" Phoenix asked.

"I want to beat him but I'll lose Ken. I really wish Travis was here right now." I said to myself. I then looked back at the kid, "It's clearly obvious. Travis would save the child first. He wouldn't attack the Phantom unless the Phantom kept him from the Gate despairing." I then ran towards the kid. Phoenix began to run at me and at the last moment I saw a bright purple light appear as a white Phantom appeared with a giant purple jewel on it's face. The monster grabbed Phoenix by the throat.

"W-W-Wiseman?! What are you doing?!" Phoenix said.

"You are acting without my permission…Again. I'm taking you back with me to discuss your punishment." The Phantom said.

"But I have to ensure that the child will become a Phantom. That guy is the Ring Bearing Magician." Phoenix said.

"I can assure you that is not the Ring Bearing Magician. That is the Primordial Mage. Who is weaker than Wizard. I highly doubt he will beat the Phantom in time that lies inside that boy." Wiseman said. The two then vanished in a bright light. I was a bit frustrated at what Wiseman had said.

"I'll show you that I'm stronger than you think I am! Transform!" I said as did my transformation pose.

 **"** **Set! Open! L-I-O-N! LION!"**

I bent down and grabbed from my ring holder the Engage ring I had and slid it on Ken's finger.

"I can't live without my mother. She gave me hope for my future. I don't want to feel that pain like I did when I lost dad. If she's gone I don't want to live on this earth anymore. I want to be with my parents. My mom…My dad…" He said as the cracks almost aligned with each other.

"Your mom is going to be okay and I'm going to make sure. I'm here for you and when you have given up on everything, you can use me as crutch to stand back up. You just need to believe in the hope that I will bring. Your parent's wouldn't want you to give up on your life when you have a bright future ahead of you. No matter what happens you have to get back up on your feet and move forward." I said to him as I placed his hand over my belt.

 **"** **Engage."**

A yellow circle hovered over the child as I leaped right into it and plunged into his Underworld. Once I got inside I saw a memory of his Mother and Ken opening Christmas presents. When they were done you could see a few presents still left under a tree. "What about dad's presents?" Ken said with a few tears running down his face. His mother hugged him.

"Why don't we make them as a small alter with a photo in the middle?" She said as tears ran down his face.

I had noticed that they family looked a bit younger. "This must be shortly after the dad got killed." I said as I looked around. When the mother and Ken were done with the alter they both hugged each other. They both said that no matter what happens they will work together to get through this loss. I wanted to cry with them but the moment the mother kissed her son's forehead a giant crack appeared and a pale skin girl emerged out of the crack as she started shooting shards of ice at every place she could. She dropped the temperature in the Underworld to freezing levels. The Phantom was wearing a long sleeve white shirt and a half bone and half froze flesh skeleton wrapped around her legs. They actually looked like they were clinging to her legs more than anything else. She had this long flowing white hair with pale blue eyes that lit up whenever she summoned any ice. She stood about fifteen feet tall so a lot shorter than what Travis and I were used to fighting.

Her screech was annoying, "I need to shut this girl up! Let's go Chimera!" I said as I grabbed my ring and placed it into my belt.

 **"** **Go! Chimeraise!"**

A beat that sounded like a hip hop song with the sounds of my animals started playing. Afterwords, a yellow spell circle appeared around my fist and I shot it into the air as Chimera came zooming out of it and rammed right into the snow girl who had grabbed Chimera's shoulders and was getting pushed back. I summoned out my Dice Saber as I ran towards the snow girl's legs and started swiping at it. The attacks were having minimal effects but the Phantom was withstanding it as she finally got a good grip on Chimera and slammed him into the ground behind me. Chimera wasn't done yet. His wings emitted a greenish glow as it started firing some kind of laser at the girl. Then when the snow girl stumbled back, Chimera jumped up into the air and raised it's arm as it stomped on her shoving her into the ground, but at the same time causing cracks to greatly form all over the Underworld.

"Chimera! You need to be careful with what you're doing!" I screamed out to him. But he wasn't listening. He raised his paw to try and rip the girl's head off but she blew a bunch of ice from her mouth causing him to have to jump off of her. He had ice blocking most of his face and he kept banging on the ground to break it off. The girl moved closer to him as she began blowing more ice onto his body. Chimera then became frozen solid all around. I ran towards him as I tried to slice the ice off but was only making small cracks. "I kinda wished I had a ring that would make my sword bigger like Travis's. I then looked down at my rings on my hands. "Maybe I don't need to." I said.

The frozen girl was shooting out more ice that was hitting the walls as I took my transformation ring and placed it into my belt.

 **"** **Kick Strike! Go!"**

I back flipped into the air as gold mana formed around my feet and I struck at the center of the ice. The ice began to shatter and Chimera was able to shake off a lot of the ice. I went to his face and held my sword high, "Okay buddy don't move. I'm going to get that ice off of you." I said as I started slashing the ice. I was able to get it all off and then I jumped on Chimera's back.

"Thank you Mark. I thought I was going to die." Chimera said.

"I made a contract with you. No matter what happens you and I are partners and I'm going to help you when I can." I said to him.

"You humans and your abilities to help another are something that is admirable." Chimera said to me.

"I can't beat this Phantom, and you obviously can't either. But if we work together maybe we can strike her down together." I said to him.

"I'm not sure how. This Phantom is a Snow Woman. Her ice is extremely strong and covers anything it touches. How do you suppose we will defeat it?" Chimera asked while still shivering. I looked down and then to the left, followed by looking to the right.

"Have we tried kicking it in the face?" I asked deep in thought.

"There's that." Chimera said.

"I like that idea a lot too." I said as I raised my two hands, "Are you ready for this Chimera?" I asked him.

"Let's go Mark." He said.

I then inserted my Transformation Ring and slid on my Chameleo Ring.

 **"** **Go! Chameleo Mix! Go!"**

A funky beat started playing as Chimera started to fly up into the air until we had a direct line towards the Snow Woman. She noticed our presence as she turned around. When she did Chimera started glowing a very light green and his tail extended out and wrapped around the Snow Woman's neck. It started to wrap around as hard as it could. "Can't spew ice out of your mouth if you can't breathe can you?" I said. We then had a green laser go straight down the tongue and it hit the Snow Woman who erupted into flames. I then jumped up into the air and kicked right behind Chimera's head as we came zooming down with a Rider Kick and plowed right through the Snow Woman's head destroying every inch of it without a trace. An explosion was made as a giant yellow spell circle appeared out of the destruction and went inside my belt.

"Oooh that one was a cold one." I said jokingly.

"Good job today Mark. You are showing a lot of promise than most of the others that came before you." Chimera said.

"Thanks Chimera." I said as I looked down at the cracks in the Underworld.

"What's wrong?" Chimera asked.

"Do you think her death was quick? The last Beast?" I asked.

"I wouldn't know, I'm sorry." Chimera said back to me.

"Yeah. I got ya." I said to him.

Chimera then flew back into his spell circle and I walked through the one I came in with but as I looked back I saw a ring lying on the ground. I bent down and picked it up. It was a dark tinted green ring with a picture of a Gryphon on it and a black base like my rings. "Is this a new ring? For me? Oh hell yea!" I said excited as I ran through my circle and appeared outside of it. I looked around to see the cracks on Ken's body fade away rapidly. I was still transformed and I took out my Dolphi Ring as I tried to heal his mother.

 **"** **Dolphi! Go D-D-D-Dolphi!"**

A purple spell circle covered my shoulder and I casted these sparkles that covered his mother and then I closed the gates on my belt as Ken recovered from his cracks and turned around to see me. I then quickly pointed to the mom and when he did he saw her wounds quickly heal. The mom woke up as she started looking around. "Ugh what happened?" She said. Ken got extremely happy as he hugged her excited that she was okay. The mom then looked up at me, "Did you save me?" She asked.

I showed them my rings on my hands, "I hope that you guys can keep a secret. I'm a mage. I wield magic from the animals in order to protect people. I'm also not the only mage who tries to save people. You guys must keep this a secret cuz I don't want you two to get involved in any more attacks." I said to them.

The two promised to keep my secret and the lady even paid for me to get a ride home through a taxi. I spent about another hour with them to make sure they were going to be okay before I headed home.

(Makoto's Viewpoint)

I was breathing heavily as I was focusing a lot of my mana into a green gemstone. When I was done I started to stumble towards the capsules in the walls and inside the green liquid filled one was DJ. I placed the stone on the glass and it started to move through it as I planted the stone into DJ's chest. "Like Maria, this stone will give you more power when you fight so you can go toe to toe with Travis. Plus this stone will give you power over the wind. The stone started dematerializing the moment it hit DJ's skin. His veins turned dark green and his eyes shot open as they took on a more green color then faded back to his normal tinted blue eyes. I then felt someone's presence come into the room. I hit the button on the capsules as DJ quickly came out ready to serve me.

"I'm impressed. You've gotten a lot stronger since we first met." Vanity said as she walked into the room.

"I would say that our first meeting was pretty short but I forget sometimes that you can sense the amount of mana in a person." I said back to her.

"It would make sense that Merlin saw you as a threat and sealed you inside that stone. If I'm correct you're the reason why Phantoms have been existing in the world for hundreds of years. Tell me are you still planning on putting the entire world in the Holy Eclipse Ritual? Just like you tried to do those many years ago?" Vanity said staring at me.

"My goals 700 years ago are still the same today. Back then I was just a novice to Merlin and only created a small handful of Phantoms. But in this day and age where people are easier to want to kill themselves, recreating Phantoms has been a piece of cake." I said to her.

"Tell me. Back when Makoto was still alive, how did she come across magic and thought of doing what Merlin once accomplished? You know making a Rider Belt that could hold magic as well as the essence of Phantoms." She questioned.

"Easy. Makoto found the stones during a cave exploration. She found the many gemstones as well as an old parchment describing how to use mana. Afterwards she came to the United States to do her research where she met Dustin and DJ who were interested in protecting the lives of many and during their research I was awaken somehow and slowly started controlling Makoto's mind until that one fateful night when I walked this earth again as well as you." I said back.

"Huh. So tell me why are you keeping DJ and Maria? Why make them mages? They will just come back to life after the completion of the ritual." Vanity asked.

"I need a total of four mages other than myself to perform the ritual. But not just anybody can become a mage. The person needs to have a very high and raw mana which is something Travis, Maria, and DJ have. All I need to get the ritual going is Aqua. I need to find my Aqua and then I will get to work on the Obelisks. I've already gone to three of the locations where I will create them. Each mage has enough power that I will syphon out without having to use up any of mine. I can then use my mana to help finish the ritual. Now do you have any more questions? Because to be frank your bothering me with your presence." I said to her.

"Ha. I don't have anymore questions. I'll leave everything to you." She said as she erupted into feathers and zoomed out of the lab. I then looked at DJ who had his back to me.

"I thought I was going to lose you back there. I guess deep down you are still the terrified man as you were five years ago. Dustin gave up his life to protect you, and then you did the same for your friends. But as long as Vanity is alive and beating I will always have an upper hand against them. Now go and keep an eye on your friends. If they start to become a nuisance I'd hope that you will take care of them." I commanded him. He then began to walk away.

"Now all I need is to find a person who will become Masked Rider Aqua. When I do I will bring this entire world to its knees." I said laughing as I stood in front of the black and blue capsule on the wall.

(Mark's Viewpoint)

It was night time and I had just gotten home and upon doing so I saw a bright light and Travis appeared in front of me. I quickly ran up to him as I bear hugged him, "Travis! Aw shit buddy I'm glad to see you're alright! Where the hell did you go? You had everyone worried." I said as he pushed me off. He had a huge smile on his face

He started laughing, "I think I went to another timeline. It's kind of hard to explain but as rough as it has been today I actually had a lot of fun." He said.

"Another timeline? What do you mean? How did you know that you were in another timeline?" I asked confused.

"I saw someone who looked a lot like me. Of course he was like 9 years older than me but it's..weird I guess. Also this other me had powers just like you and I. But I'll tell you colored spandexes…You'll never catch me wearing something like that." He said laughing. I didn't understand what he meant by spandexes but I was excited to have my friend back safe and sound.

"What was your other self's powers? Were they might and strong like my animals?" I said as I puffed out my chest.

"Better. They used the power of the dinosaurs to fight. They called themselves the Dinothunder Power Rangers. You ever heard of them?" He asked.

"No. I never heard of a thing about Power Rangers. Maybe Shawn does since he's the geek out of all of us." I said jokingly.

Travis and I started walking up the steps to surprise everyone but when I reached for the door handle I saw Travis was staring off at the only big tree in the yard that was about twenty feet from the house. When I looked in his path of sight we saw someone walking amongst the little forest farther past the tree.

"Is that…DJ?" Travis said.

I looked as he pointed in the direction and the figure that was walking in the trees stopped moving. Travis was determined that it was DJ. "That presence in the trees is faint but it feels like DJ." He said.

"How the hell can you sense a person's presence and especially know who they are on top of it?" I asked him.

"I don't know. I used this to help find an enemy that the Rangers were having a problem tracking down." He said. The figure then started walking back into the small forest and Travis bolted as fast as he could.

"Travis wait!" I said as I started running towards him. We ran off into the dark forest chasing the figure that Travis thought was DJ. I ended up losing Travis since he was a faster runner than I was. I started looking all around and then I heard Travis's voice.

"Get back here!" He yelled. I followed the source of the sound and when I did I found him on his knees. It seemed like he was just recovering from falling. I quickly ran up to him as I helped him out.

"Hey man are you alright?" I said to him. Travis stood up brushing himself off.

"Yea I am." He said.

"Did you get a look at the guy? Was it really DJ?" I said worried about what his answer would be. Travis was holding something in his hand and he opened it to us seeing a photograph.

"What's that?" I asked.

Travis hesitated for a moment and then spoke, "It's a Christmas photo that DJ took after we opened those presents he got for us."

"But the only person who could have that is…DJ…" I said as I looked up to see nothing in the dark forest. "Let's go home." I said. I couldn't believe that Travis had this ability to sense people.

"Travis never had the power to create mana and use it as a weapon either like he did with Vanity. His power has always been contained and only accessible through rings. If anything this has me extremely worried." I thought to myself.

We went back to the house as we got greeted by all of our friends who were excited to see all of us. We also decided to discuss what had just happened outside as well.


	14. Valentine's Day Concert

Author's Note: Hi guys so this is going to be a pretty much light and nice feeling chapter after how dark Wizard has gotten and how a bit heavy Dino Thunder has been, which if you haven't read that go and read it. But I want to make mention about this chapter so you get the full experience. There will be two songs that I've put the lyrics in here and it would be best for you to listen to the songs as you read. The songs and artists are as follows in order of appearance:

Superhero-Simon Lee Curtis

Stand By You-(A cover song)-Marlisa

Please listen to those songs as soon as you get to the person who will sing them in order to get a good effect on the chapter. I will be a bit late on getting Chapter 15 of Wizard up which will be focused on wrapping up Mark and Travis's backstory on what happened in their childhood that caused them to split apart. That chapter will have another twist in the story that wasn't done in the original Kamen Rider Wizard show and is entirely creative. So I'm hoping you enjoy that. Thanks so much for reading and enjoy this chapter!

* * *

(Manuela's Viewpoint)

February had finally rolled around for all of us. The recent Phantom attacks had stopped as well as Ghouls. When Travis came back from using the Time Ring he had mentioned a group of colored heroes known as the Power Rangers were fighting a battle with an evil entity known as Mesogog. In their world Masked Riders don't exist, and we came to a realization that in our world Power Rangers don't exist. Each side's heroes were nothing more than a TV show in the other's world. The thought of another evil lurking had bothered Mark. He had thought that we should go help them, but Travis decided that it would be best if they let them fight their own battles since we were already busy dealing with something in our world.

February 7th rolled around and I had slept in than normal. I had a moment in the middle of the night where I had dreamt of my sister. Ever since I saw Maria standing by Makoto's side it's been rough on me, especially since I had accepted her death but to see her standing there without a mark on her body was something that mentally messed with me. The nightmares I was having started getting worst as the days went on and Travis had to help calm me down at one point.

I had woken up to a text from Travis, " _Hey heading out to the store with Robin. Do you want anything?"_ I was still tired but I reached out for the phone and began texting back.

 _"_ _My head is killing me. I think we are out of Tylenol, could you get some for me?"_ I said as I held my head. Travis texted back saying he could and I got up to try and start my day.

I took a hot shower that was in the room. I took a shower longer than normal as I was thinking about a lot of stuff that had been on my mind. My mind was obviously focused on my sister, "I can't believe she didn't notice me. She's never been like that. Plus with how she was obeying Makoto's orders, she seemed more like a doll on a string. Plus Travis was telling me about how he found that picture of us in the woods. Could DJ also be in the same state as her? Which doesn't make any sense, all of us saw DJ die. There is no way he could live after what Vanity did to him." I thought. More of my thoughts began flowing in my mind as I saw Maria die at the hospital with her wounds on her chest when the doctors pulled up her shirt. Remembering how DJ sacrificed himself to save Mark. I ended up knocking my shampoo bottle onto the floor and when I bent down to pick it up, I ended up falling and banging my head on the wall. My vision started going blurry and I heard a pounding on the door. I tried to speak out but blacked out before I could.

I was dreaming and in my dream I was standing in a grassy field that was covered in fog. "Where am I?" I said as I tried looking all over. I didn't know where I was and then I heard someone groaning in pain. About twenty feet behind me was a log and someone's back was up against it. The source of the breathing was coming from that direction. I ran up to the log and the closer I got to the log, I had begun to know who was laying up against the log. It was Travis.

I ran around the log to see him covered in blood from the stomach down. He had bruises all over his body. I reached out and grabbed his hand, "Travis! What the hell happened to you?! Who did this to you?" I asked him. He just kept breathing heavily as he didn't even recognize me.

"I find it ironic that this is how I am going to die." He said. I then noticed that he wasn't looking at me, but at the person standing behind me. I let go of his hands as I turned around slowly and when I looked at the person behind me, my eyes widened. The person was me with the same doll like expression as Maria. My right hand covered in Travis's blood. I watched as my other-self walked up to Travis and raised him up in the air.

"No! Stop it!" I said as I kicked my other self in the side but my foot went right through the body. I was looking at the ground as I heard a loud snap and when I fell to the ground, I woke up from my dream.

I was thrashing all about scared but someone was holding my arms and when I calmed down enough I saw Travis holding me down. "Hey! Manuela calm down! Just calm down! You're okay I'm right here!" Travis said. Hearing that he was alright calmed me down. He held me up against his chest as I began to cry. "What's gotten you so upset? What happened?" He said concerned.

Tears were running down my face and I was shivering a bit since my body was a bit cold. "I thought you died." I said to him choking up on the last word. "I saw myself kill you. You were bleeding out and I killed you." I said to him. He stroked my head as he just sat there holding me.

"It was just a dream. Just your brain playing tricks on you. We've all been going through a lot in the past two and a half weeks." He said. I was wrapped in one of the big towels that we had from my chest down and when I had finally calmed down I got up and went to the bathroom. I put my clothes on and fixed up my hair.

I put on some make up and hung the towel on the hanger on the wall. I then turned around to see Travis holding a bright green colored bag. "So I got some stuff for you while I was out." He said as he handed me the bag.

"Shoot you didn't have to give it to me in a flashy looking bag." I said to him laughing. I reached into the bag as I pulled out some medicine, my favorite bag of M&M's, and a stuffed animal that was a small Chihuahua. It looked like the one you would see on the Taco Bell commercials. "Oh my goodness I love it." I said with a huge smile on my face.

"Oh hey you got something in the mail today too. It was in a very nice looking envelope." He said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a turquoise colored envelope.

"Huh I wasn't expecting anything. Who would send me a fancy letter?" I wondered. I flipped the envelope around to only see my name and the address. But there was no name for who sent it. I opened up the envelope and saw an invitation card. The card was white with gold seams and I opened it and inside the card was two tickets as well as a laminated badge with the numbers 023 on them. The letter said this:

 _Dear Manuela Urbieta,_

 _You have been selected by popularity vote to represent Bowling Green to participate in the Ohio's Best Vocalists. We have chosen a group of people with singing talents across the State of Ohio to participate in this grand event. The top 3 runner ups will receive the following:_

 _First Place: 10,000 Dollars_

 _Second Place: 5,000 Dollars_

 _Third Place: 2,000 Dollars_

 _Each Placed Winner will receive an award as well as a recommendation to any college pursuing a Musical Arts Degree. I would suggest to respond within the next day at the number located at the end if you want to participate. We will also be holding the competition in Bowling Green at the Stroh Center. In this envelope along with your badge, you should have two free tickets to the even to bring someone with you. At the door the tickets will be $35 dollars for Students and $45 for Non-students. The tickets will allow the people you choose to sit up front for the entire performance. The event will also take place at exactly 5PM, February 14_ _th_ _2015._

 _Best Regards and we hope to hear from you soon,_

 _Vincent Richardson_

 _P.S. When you call to schedule and confirm you would like to take part in this competition, please make sure you allow us to know what song you will be singing so we can have the music ready for when you go up on stage._

I folded the letter as I started getting really excited. I began squealing as I jumped up and down on and then tackle hugged Travis. "Oh my God! This is great! If I can win that competition I'll be able to start my music career! This is great! Oh I have to go tell everyone!" I said as I let go of him and ran out the bedroom door. I ran into the living room as everyone was surprised to see how excited I was. Mark had this look on his face.

"Wow and you guys say I'm uncontrolling when I have too much sugar intake." He said with a well performed surprised look on his face.

"Guys! Guys! You won't believe what I just got! I got invited to perform in Ohio's Best Vocalists! If I can get first place I'll have enough money to start my music career! OMG! I'm so pumped!" I said excited beyond belief.

Robin came up and hugged me. Mark threw the box of popcorn up in the air as he heard this.

"Oh I'm feeling one of my bear hugs coming on!" Mark said as he ran towards me. "Come here girl!" He said as he hugged me and then lifted me up into the air. "This is great news! Our little chica gonna be a major star!" He said swinging me around. I was starting to feel a bit dizzy and he put me down. Everyone began surrounding me as they all were excited for me.

"So I'm taking it you're going to accept the invitation?" Travis said coming into the room with a smile on his face.

"I think I will. This is a golden chance if I can pull it off." I said to him. Travis then tossed me my cell phone.

"Well get to it Chica." He said with a smile on his face.

I called them and told them I was accepting their offer. When they asked what song I was going to sing I turned around and asked Travis to cover his ears.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because the song I'm going to choose will be a song that I'm dedicating to you. I want you to hear that song when I perform it." I said to him with my face beaming red.

"Okay. I will." He said as he closed his ears.

I ended up telling the people the song as and when I hung up the phone I asked everyone to not tell Travis what the song was. I then ran straight up to Travis as I grabbed his hands.

"You can finally get to hear me sing for the first time." I said to him cheerfully.

"Yea I will. I'll make sure I'm there." He said rubbing the side of my face.

"Promise?" I asked.

"I promise." He said back. I then jumped up and kissed him on the cheek.

"Okay I have to go and practice! I'm going outside to practice because I don't want you to hear the song either. I only have a week left to go! Alright see ya babe!" I said as I grabbed my jacket and ran out into the snowy countryside.

Days had gone by very quickly. I had worked very hard at singing and on the night before the 14th I gave one last hour practice but this time I did it in the basement because of the snowstorm we had gotten that day. When I was done I walked upstairs to get some sleep. Travis was out and about as well as everyone else. The only person left in the house was Karina.

"Do you think you'll do well tomorrow?" Karina asked me as I entered the room.

"Yea I think I should be all set. I don't really think I can do much anymore." I said to her. She was staring into her crystal ball as she kept an eye on Travis in it. She had given out a sigh like she was bored. I walked up behind her as I placed my hands on her shoulder, "Do you love him too?" I asked her. Karina got startled as the crystal ball faded out.

"I-I-Don't know wh-what you're talking about?" She said stuttering.

"You don't have to lie to me, I've known since I first met you guys. So tell me why you're attached to him." I asked her. "I mean I can keep a secret and it's just us girls here." I added on.

Karina looked down at the ground and then all over the place as she tried to gather her thoughts. "Well he's the first person I became friends with when I came here. He was kind of cold to me when we first met and when I stayed at his house the day he had gotten his powers I noticed how lonely he was. I knew that feeling too, for a long time. When I despaired I was thinking he would leave me, just like everyone else. Everyone kind of leaves when I'm not able to be strong anymore. He then did his best to save me. When I died and then came back as well as waking up here at DJ's, Travis was the first person I saw first. DJ had told me that he carried me to his house before Travis collapsed onto the floor. I've never had someone go that far for me before. My bond with him got even deeper as we all worked on fighting Phantoms, and the more friends we had. Because of him, my world that was just black and grey became colorful with the more friends we had met. That's why when DJ was killed in front of us I felt something rip me apart. If Travis wasn't around or Mark I would start seeping back into that old world of mine." She said with a concerned expression.

"Did you ever tell Travis how you felt about him?" I asked her.

"I've been too nervous to ask especially with everything going on. I kind of lost that chance when you came along. But at that time I was content on just being a close friend of his. I think I knew I wasn't supposed to date him, since we came to DJ's I've called him Bro and have turned a lot of my love for him to a more family love. Sometimes I get that spark but I think I know deep down that I will always be his best friend, and family to him. Almost all of the time I'm perfectly okay with that. It feels natural if you know what I mean." She asked me.

"Yeah it does." I responded back in a deep thought about what she had said.

"What about you? What has Travis done to make you fall in love with him?" Karina asked me. I had not expected that question to be thrown back at me and I had to take a moment to calm my mind.

"I'll have to tell you that another time. What I can tell you is that Travis has been helping me pick up my broken pieces and thanks to him I'm able to see a brand new me." I said to her with a smile.

"I think no matter what, you'll be a good match for him. You've been the only one who's brought the best out of him compared to the rest of us." Karina said. I walked over to the window as I looked out into the snowy landscape.

"I want to think that it wasn't just me. But all of you guys as well." I said to her as I looked out the window.

Travis had come home late that night. Apparently he and Mark had dealt with a random Phantom and were able to stop it before it did any harm. I told him that night that I gave Karina the other ticket for her to come to the performance. Everyone that night had bought their tickets and I was able to get them as close as they could to the front row. I had told Travis and Mark that I was going to be going to the Stroh Center early for the makeup and everything so we can be presentable. He told me that he would be there.

The next day Travis and I went out to breakfast. We had gotten up pretty early and headed out one of the Big Boy's restaurants. We both had gotten pancakes and while sitting in the old diner like store I was just staring at Travis eating. It took him a bit but he noticed this.

"Are you going to eat?" He asked.

"Yeah. I've just been thinking about stuff." I said back to him.

"Oh? Is it about the competition tonight?" He asked me.

"Nah it's not that. I've been thinking about us." I said blushing.

"Umm the only ring I have for this situation is an Engage Ring that you already wear…" He said shocked.

"Hahahahaha! Oh Lord no! I'm not thinking of pushing our relationship that far yet. Hahahaha!" I said unable to control my laughter. I finally stopped laughing. "I've been thinking about how lucky I am to have met you. You've done so much than anybody else. You saved me from becoming a monster, you've helped me with getting over my sister's death, you've taught me how to fight so I can defend myself, and you have helped me break out of my shell. Not a lot of people could do those things. Especially with last summer, after what I did to you I'm surprised that I'm here with you right now." I said to him.

Travis reached out and grabbed my hands, "If there was a way I could've brought back the people who mattered a lot to me, I would do it. I'd give up my life if I could have my parent's back. I may have taken my frustration out on you when I found out, but I know if I was in your shoes I would've done the same thing." He said in a kind voice.

"There are times in the back of my head that I still kind of beat myself up for what I did. I'm guessing I haven't fully moved on yet." I said.

"I'd suggest you to try. There was a lot that happened last year. But you've come along way since then, I don't thin, you should let it haunt you anymore." He said looking at me in the eyes.

"You promise you'll be at the competition tonight?" I asked him.

"Yea I'll be right up front." He said to me.

I smiled as I poured the syrup on my pancakes and began eating. I didn't practice for the rest of the day but I did replay the song in my head so I could have the lyric's mastered. Then about two hours before the competition Travis gave me a ride to the Stroh Center and when I walked in I got to meet the some of the competitors. Everybody there was extremely friendly and the room we were in was really fancy looking. I was the last contestant for the show and it took about an hour for all of us to look great. They even had a wardrobe for all of us to choose what we were going to wear for the performance. I had found a nice black dress that had straps that went over my shoulders, and then wrap around my upper arm. It would cover my chest while leaving the area between my breasts open, and then goes all the way down to my feet. The black dress exposed my left leg and the fabric was like silk. From the waist down there was glitter on the dress which made it look really bright. "I wonder what Travis would think of me in this dress?" I wondered.

I walked out into a hallway where I saw a guy who sitting on the floor with his hands closed together and based on what he was saying, it sounded like he was praying. He had some tears in his eyes and I walked over to him. The man was white skinned, brown short hair, silver ear piercings with a clean shaved face. He was wearing a black tuxedo with a red undershirt and a crimson colored tie to match. He had black leather shoes on and a silver watch on his left wrist.

I kneeled down next to him, "Hey sir are you okay? Are you nervous about the competition?" I asked him.

He was a bit startled but he calmed down when he saw me. "I think I feel more concerned if anything else." He said with a country accent.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"My fiancé was supposed to be here tonight and I just got a call that she just got admitted into the hospital for some disease or something wrong with her body. It would seem she needs to have surgery done in order to save her life but I don't know where I'm going to get the money. I can try and win this thing but I don't know if it's even possible because I'm not sure if I'll be able to win. I'm so shaken up I'm not sure if I'll be able to focus let alone win 3rd place." He said as a few more tears came down his face.

I didn't know what to do or what to say. "I wish Travis was here cause he would know what to do." I thought to myself. I felt like I needed to say something because this guy was breaking. I calmed my mind down and thought about what I could say. I reached out and put my hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not really good at things like this but I can tell that you could use some. This is the only way to make enough money for you to help save your fiancé right? What I suggest is you go out there and you do your best. Whenever I have sung in front of people when I have a lot going on, I use that stress and channel it into my singing. It's what has helped me greatly. I'm sure your fiancé would love that as well." I said to him. He wiped the tears off his face and then looked up at me.

"I'm sorry you had to go out of your way for me." He said with a little smile on his face.

"You don't need to worry about it. There was a time when I had a similar moment and someone gave me the strength to stand back up again." I said to him.

"What did you do when that person did that for you?" He asked.

"I fell in love with him." I responded back.

I then heard a guy speaking wanting everyone to go to the makeup artist so we can get ready for the performance. When I was walking away the man stopped me, "Hey, what was that thing that you thought I could use?" He asked. I turned around and looked at him in the eyes.

"Hope." I said to him as I smiled and walked into a room.

It took me a while to get ready and we began the contestants on this giant stage. There was a red curtain that surrounded the stage to hide the contestants. There were TVs that were posted everywhere so people could see who was performing. The people who were given the special admission tickets were right up front of the stage. After every ten people there would be an intermission. Whenever a contestant would appear on stage we got an introduction as well as getting to know a bit of who they are.

We finally gotten to the last two contestants which was me and the guy I was talking to in the hallway.

"Next up is Richard Marshal! He will be singing _Die For You_ by Starset. But now let's have an introduction from Richard himself. We've had a lot of moving intros from these young stars. Go ahead Richard! Take to the stage!" The announcer said as Richard jogged out to center stage and then stood there. He held the microphone to his mouth and right when he looked up you could see a tear going down his face on the monitors. He took a moment before he spoke so he wouldn't choke on what he wanted to say.

"Five years ago I fell in love with a woman. She was just a normal friend, she helped me through high school and part of college. Then one day her parents got into a car accident and had died. This left her destroyed and with her part time job she became homeless. I took her in as a way to help payback everything she did for me, and the time she made for me. I was never good with the ladies and was not interested in being loved by someone. But I helped her overcome her stress and helped her stand back on her two feet. I would do things for her and was always by her side. I took up singing because it was something that she enjoyed and told me that it made her life full of color again. Last week we got engaged and were planning on being married at the start of the new year. But just a couple hours ago she became extremely ill and I can save her life if I had enough money. I'm not saying this to make you guys vote for me to be the winner, I'm saying this because I have a lot on my mind right now and I originally was going to leave and be by her side. But a certain girl told me that I should try my best at this competition. Because of her giving me some hope I have gathered the strength to come up here and do my best. At last second I was able to change my song that I was going to sing, to the song the announcer said. This is a song that my fiancé loved to hear me sing and because of that I will do my best here tonight."

After that a hyping rock song began to sound as Richard's entire atmosphere became still to an emotional feeling. A few seconds into the start of the music, Richard began to sing.

" _Oh Oh Oooh!_

 _Oh Oh Oohh!_

 _Stand up, everybody look alive,_

 _Said come on! come on! come on!_

 _We gonna get it now!_

 _Hands up if you're ready for a fight, Said come on come on We gonna win now_

 _I don't need you to believe in me_

 _I know how to change my destiny. Sit down about to rewrite our history, rewrite our history_

 _We can change the whole world!_

 _Gonna take it over!_

 _Gonna start it over! Don't you know who we could be?_

 _Fight until we're winning! Tell me that you're in it!_

 _Don't you wanna be_

 _A superhero_

 _A superhero_

 _A superhero!_

 _Don't you wanna be a superhero!_

 _A super hero_

 _A super hero!_

 _Anybody could be_

 _Anybody could be_

 _Anybody could be!_

 _Rip it off, show the symbol on your chest!_

 _Said come and show the world who you really are!_

 _It's not enough to be better than the rest_

 _Gotta take it to the top and make yourself a superstar!_

 _You don't need them to believe in you!_

 _Get your mission on lock and see it through!_

 _You've got all the power you need in you, power you need in you_

 _We can change the whole world! Gonna take it over! Gonna start it over!_

 _Don't you know what we could be?_

 _A new beginning, fight until we're winning, tell me that you're in it_

 _Don't you wanna be a superhero! A superhero! A superhero. Anybody could be!_

 _Oooooh, aaaah, oh, ah, oh, ah oh oh oh!_

 _Oh, ah, oh, ah, oh, ah, oh oh, oh oh!_

 _We can change the whole world! Gonna take it over! Gonna start it over!_

 _Don't you know what we could be?_

 _A new beginning, fight until we're winning, tell me that you're in it_

 _Don't you wanna be…A superhero! A superhero! A superhero!_

 _Don't you wanna be a…Superhero! A Superhero! A superhero!_

 _We can change the whole world gonna take it over! Gonna start it over! Don't you know what we could be?!_

 _A new beginning! Fight until we're winning! Tell me that you're in it!_

 _Don't you wanna be…A superhero! A superhero! A superhero!_

 _Don't you wanna be…A superhero! A superhero! A superhero!_

 _Anybody could be a superhero!_

Richard ended the song with throwing his fist up in the air as the instrumental music began to slowly fade and when the song ended there was quietness in the air as Richard's feelings for his fiancé just washed over everyone. Looking into the crowd you could see people who held up lighters during the song and others jumping and acting crazy at Richard's singing. I got a look at Karina and Travis at the front row. Travis had raised his fist in the air as he was really moved by the song. Karina had this huge excitement on his face. All of my other friends who had shown up were also pretty pumped. A group of people started chanting Richard's name as his song got everyone pumped. Richard was breathing heavily as sweat was rolling down his face. The excitement in the crowd was a bit intense.

"After seeing everyone perform I wonder if I can even win." I wondered. I had noticed that Richard had probably beaten at least seven of the contestants. Richard gave a small bow as he walked towards me. He had a smile on his face as he walked by.

"Next up is our final contestant! A girl who has been living in this city and winning the hearts of it's citizens! Our youngest contestant at 15, you guy's chose her, Manuela Urbieta!" The announcer said as I walked out. I was a bit nervous for I wasn't used to performing for this huge group of people. I then looked at the front line as Travis and everyone had this huge smile on their faces…And then there was Mark.

"WHOOO! Yeah! The chick I've been waiting all night for! Oh shit!" Mark was immediately grabbed from behind by Robin as she got him to fall in his seat. I had a chuckle from seeing that.

I grabbed the microphone off this table as I put it up to my mouth.

"I want to thank everyone for helping me get here. I wasn't aware of a poll for people to vote for in order to get to an event like this. I'm hoping that you guys will enjoy me performing. The song I have chosen is aimed at someone who has given me hope, been there for me during a death in my family, and when he lost his way I was able to be there to bring him back. He has become someone very special and somebody that I will stand by." I said.

A slow and then steady beat began to play and just a few seconds in the song turned into a fast pop song.

 _"_ _The hurt in your eyes will never disguise_

 _The spark that lived there before_

 _And I know that you're so much more_

 _Than you're showin'_

 _The clouds in your hair will bring you to tears_

 _But I will catch every drop, even if it don't ever stop_

 _'_ _Cause you're worth, you're worth it_

 _When you fight for every breath_

 _And the waves are overhead_

 _Let me lay your mind to re-e-st_

 _I will stand by you_

 _When all of your dreams are shattered!_

 _And your world is left in tatters!_

 _When you're lost, we're lost together!_

 _I'll stand by, I will stand by you!_

 _If black is your brightest color!_

 _If hurt is your only lover!_

 _When you fight, we fight together!_

 _I'll stand by you! I will standby you!_

 _I will stand by you_

 _I will stand by you_

 _I will stand by you_

 _The war in your head will shoot you down dead_

 _So don't even try to win_

 _Is it worth it all in the end?_

 _I don't think so_

 _Try to embrace the lines in your face, the story of who you are_

 _'_ _Cause I love what I've read so far_

 _I mean it…I mean it_

 _When you fight for every breath, and the waves are overhead_

 _Let my lay your mind to rest_

 _I will stand by you!_

 _When all of your dreams are shattered!_

 _And your world is left in tatters!_

 _When you're lost, we're lost together!_

 _I'll stand by, I will stand by you!_

 _I will stand by you_

 _I will stand by you_

 _I will stand by you_

 _When you fight for every breath…And the wavers are overhead…Let me lay your mind to rest…_

 _I will stand by you_

 _When all of your dreams are shattered! (Yeaaah)_

 _And your world is left in tatters!_

 _When you're lost, we're lost together_

 _I'll stand by, I will stand by you_

 _If black is your brightest color!_

 _If hurt is your only lover!_

 _When you fight we fight together!_

 _I'll stand by, I will stand by y-o-ou!_

 _I will stand by you!_

 _I will stand by you!_

 _I will stand by you!_

 _I will stand by you!_

 _I will stand you!_

 _I will stand by you!_

 _I will stand by you!_

 _I will stand by-y yo-u!_

The moment I finished the song I pointed at Travis and lifted my finger up above my head. Once I gave the final word everyone in the entire arena got extremely excited and started chanting my name over and over again. People were jumping out of their seats but I think Mark was the most excited. My friends were participating in the chants and I could see a lot of people crying while having huge smiles on their faces. You could just feel how well I did by the immense excitement emanating throughout the entire stadium. It was so loud with everyone hooting and hollering and my heart was beating pretty fast as I was excited at how much I moved them.

"Oh my goodness this is pretty amazing feeling." I thought as people began flashing their cameras. Even the other contestants were moved by my singing. Even Richard who was clapping at me as he and the others walked out onto the stage. The others were all clapping and a few gave me a hug telling me how moved they were from my performance as well as the song I just sung.

"That was the most enthusiastic and great performance I've heard all night." The announcer said. "Let's hear it for our contestants ladies and gentleman!" He said as everyone got up from their seats and began giving all of us a round of applause with more hooting and hollering.

"This is what I want my life to be like. To have moments like these. This is my motivation to be a singer, and I know I can do this." I said to myself as everyone gave a bow and then got in a straight line as we all stood there with huge smiles on our faces. The announcer then came onto the stage with a black suit, slit black blonde hair, white skin and blue eyes.

"All right everyone! You all received a little touch screen device that should have numbers 1-23 on them. What I want all of you to do is to punch one number and when you do it will ask you if you want to confirm your entry. You will hit okay and your vote will get tallied in. Please make your choices now. When all of your votes have been entered the device will then become inactive. Once every device has become inactive the screen behind me will show only the top 3 contestants based on the votes. Now there is a total of 1150 people here, so without further ado let's get this show on the road! Vote now!" The announcer said.

All of began twiddling our thumbs, or standing there feeling very nervous at what the results will be. I was having butterflies in my stomach as I began to mentally pray in hoping I will come out in the top 3. I almost wished I could see the future just so I could get rid of this weird feeling as I heard a beep emanating around the stadium. "I'm so nervous right now. I have to stay calm." I said to myself as I began rubbing my hands together.

"TIME!" The announcer said.

"Alright, it's showtime." I said to myself as every contestant turned around and faced the screen. The top 3 contestants were:

Third: Victoria Manson

Second: Collen Stanford

First: Manuela Urbieta

The moment I saw my name the feeling in me became an overwhelming joy. Everyone in the stadium roared and began clapping their hands in excitement. I jumped up and down on the stage excited as I can be.

"That's it folks! You're winners are present. Top 3 Contestants please accept your spoils. In these envelopes holds your prize money as well as the Best Vocalist Trophy. You all should be proud. Also for the top 3 you are allowed to keep the dress that you had picked out for yourselves! Congratulations for everyone who performed! I hope to see you all in the future!" He said as everyone gave one more round of applause.

I had taken the glass trophy and we all exited the stage. I walked to the front of the stage as Travis, Mark, Robin, Karina, and Shawn came running towards me. Travis was in front of them all. I jumped off the stage and Travis quickly reached his arms out as he caught me. He spun me around and I began to hug him as hard as I could.

"I knew you could do it. Now you have enough money to make your dream come true." He said to me.

"I know I'm pretty excite-." I stopped as Richard shot across my mind. "There's something I need to do." I said as I looked around but couldn't find Richard anywhere. "Travis come with me for a sec." I said as I grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the changing rooms.

"Manuela what are we doing?!" He asked as he and I ran. We got up to the rooms and I opened the door to see the clothes Richard was wearing just thrown on the floor.

"Travis we need to find Richard. But I don't know where he went." I said begging him to do something.

" I have an idea. Hold onto me." He said. He reached into his pocket and took out his Time Ring. He then looked around to see if anyone was watching or coming.

 **"** **Time, please."**

A ticking clock noise was made as Travis had us slowly go back about five minutes. We just stood there with people going through us and then I saw Richard leaving the dressing room. He seemed like he was broken. He was also on the phone.

"I didn't win babe…No please don't talk like that right now it's hard for me right now…I know…The announcer said I was at least 1 vote away from even hitting top 3…Yes I know…I have to go babe…" He said on the phone. He then began crying as he ran out the door and went down the hall.

"He's heading to the back entrance." Travis said.

We returned back to our normal time as we ran to find him. We got out the back entrance of the stadium. He was sitting in his car with his hands clutched on the steering wheel. We walked up to his car and I knocked on the window. He looked at us as his face was red from the tears he was pouring. He rolled down the window and began drying up his face. When the window was fully down I handed him the envelope with the check still in it.

"Wh-What?" He said stuttering.

"I want you to have it." I said to him.

"Wh-Why would yo-you d-do this f-for me?" He asked.

"I think a life is more important than my dream. I'm 15 years old and have my entire life ahead of me. You're fiancé doesn't have that time. This money will help save her." I said to him.

"Are you sure you want to do this? You don't even know me." He asked so confused.

"Yes." I said back with a smile.

The man then got out of the car as he accepted the envelope and wrapped his arms around me as he began crying again. "Thank you so much! I don't know what to say! My fiancé will be able to keep living again." He said. He let me go as he called his fiancé. "Babe! You won't believe what just happened. You're going to keep living!" He said into the phone. Travis came up and grabbed my hand.

"We should get going back to our friends they are probably wondering where we are." He said comforting.

I walked over to Richard as I gave him my phone number. "I want to be there for you when the surgery happens. Call me at this number when they do it and we'll be there." I said as I looked at Travis.

"I would be happy to be there as some type of support." Travis said to him.

We turned around and began walking away as Richard yelled his final goodbyes to us. Travis held my hand tight, "You know I didn't think you would go that far out to help someone. You pretty much gave up on your dream to become reality tonight." He said with a gentle tone in his voice. I stopped moving as Travis faced me.

"That's probably because I have a boyfriend who has shown me that caring for others isn't really a bad thing. I think being someone's hope is more rewarding than any dream I could ever have." I said to him as I stood on my toes, wrapped my arms around the back of his neck and gave him a long kiss.

"Happy Valentine's Day Travis." I said to him standing back down on my feet with a huge smile on my face.

"Happy Valentine's Day Manuela." He said back to me. We then heard a door open behind Travis as all of our friends had come rushing to find us.

"Oh so this is where you guys were at?" Robin said.

"We thought a Phantom had attacked you guys." Karina said.

"No we're good. Hey so I just won and would like something to eat. Who all wants to go out to Old Towne Buffet?" I asked everyone.

"Oh hell yea! That's my kind of girl!" Mark said.

"Everyone to Robin's van! We going out!" Shawn said jumping up in the air. He forgot there was ice on the ground as he slipped and fell the moment his feet touched the ground.

We all began laughing and started throwing snowballs at each other before we even got to Robin's van. The rest of our night was perfect. After snowball fighting we finally got out to the buffet, stuffed our stomachs, and then we all gathered up back at the house to watch comedy movies until we all passed out in the living room. I didn't have any more bad dreams that night as I was cuddled up against Travis on the couch.


	15. A Howl to the Past

(Mark's Viewpoint)

A few days had gone by since the concert. Travis and Manuela had gone off to Athens, Ohio because the guy named Richard Marshal had gotten ahold of them about his fiancé going through the surgery needed to keep her alive. So the two decided to keep him company. Meanwhile I was laying in my tent outside in the cold wrapped up in a warm sleeping bag reading a book. I was having a hard time reading because I began to think of something from long ago. I was remembering the day that I was forced to watch Travis getting beaten up by a gang that lived on our street. I tried to do something but I was afraid that I would get the same treatment as he did.

"You know, now that I think about it. Am I really a good friend after what I did back then?" I wondered. I looked at my watch to see it was almost two in the morning. "Damn I've been up late. I should try and get some sleep." I said as I blew out the candle in my lantern and slept with my sleeping bag covering my entire face.

I awoke in my dream as I saw my younger self and a younger Travis. I was nine years old and he was eight. It was summer time and in about a month it was going to be Travis's birthday. We were playing with a bucket of chalk my parent's had bought for me and made a mess on the pavement. I looked at Travis who was sweating a bit from the heat.

"I'm thirsty." He said wiping away the sweat on his forehead.

"Oh hey I'll go get some water from the fridge in the garage!" I said. I ran into the back of the houses as I grabbed some cold water from the garage and when I came back I saw a group of black kids surrounding Travis. They were beating him on the ground and kicking him and I tried to run but got grabbed from behind by the gang's leader: Terrion White.

Terrion was 16 years old, black, thin with a shaved head wearing some punk like clothes. He grabbed the bottle of water from me as he began drinking it. "Thanks for leading us to him. You've been a good friend to me." Terrion said. I looked in horror as Travis was getting beaten.

Terrion then stopped the fight as one of his groupies picked up Travis who had blood all over him and could barely stand.

"No…I didn't do this…I need to move…" I said in fear.

I could see Travis's left eye look at me as his right eye was starting to swell. He was looking at me, that was until Terrion punched him across the face and the guy holding him let go. Terrion then kicked Travis repeatedly in his shoulders and stomach. He then took the bottle of water that he was drinking as he dumped it's contents on him and threw the bottle in his face. "Hey everyone look at the pathetic wetback! About as useless as the rest of his race! Hahahaha!" Terrion said as everyone just looked at him hunched sideways from all of the pain. Travis reached his hand out to me.

"Mark…Help me…please…It hurts…" He said. I just stood there as each gang member began spitting on him as they either walked away from Travis or stepped on him. Terrion stayed behind as he came over and grabbed me and walked me over to Travis.

"Mark was the one who helped us give you this beating. I don't know if you know this but Mark and I are buddies. You're just wasted space in this neighborhood. Why don't you go cry home to mom and daddy brownie." Terrion said.

Travis had tears running down his face and my dreams fast forwarded to a few days later when Travis was almost fully healed. I had just gotten home from school and Travis was riding his bike around the neighborhood. He had seen me and I tried to run into my backyard for I was unable to face him. He had finally gotten up to me and when he did, he grabbed me from behind and threw me on the ground as he began punching me in the face.

"HOW COULD YOU?! I THOUGHT I WAS YOUR FRIEND! WHY MARK?! WHYYY!" He screamed as he punched me across the face. He then put his hands around my throat as he began choking me. He also raised my head and slammed it on the pavement and when that happened I woke up screaming.

"NOO!" I said as I felt my cheeks wet. I wiped the tears off from my face as I noticed it was finally day time. I looked at my watch to see it was a little bit past ten in the morning. I was shaking from the dream, "I didn't…I didn't sell you out…I swear I didn't…" I said crying.

I heard laughter from outside as I saw Karina and Shawn throwing snowballs at each other in front of DJ's house. I got up and wiped my tears as I put on the smile that everyone loved to see and combed my hair down instead of shooting out the back of my head like it normally does.

"Hey guys! Who's winning?" I said jokingly. Shawn and Karina had built a pile of snow and I was standing where Karina was who was huddled down behind her wall.

"Shhh I'm hunting wabbits." She said jokingly.

Shawn then stood up from behind his wall, "Hey Doc! Who you calling a wabbit?!" He said sounding like Bugs Bunny.

Karina quickly gathered a bunch of pre-made snowballs as she emerged from her hiding spot and began chucking them at Shawn, "You! You pesky wabbit!" She said with a terrible voice impersonation of Elmer Fudd. Shawn began not running, but hopping away from Karina as she charged at him. I decided to go into the house to get something warm to eat as I let them have fun playing in the snow.

I walked into the kitchen as I made some peaches and cream oatmeal and turned on the TV. I was watching the news in case there was anything that could be a Phantom attack. "Ever since Vanity's arrival there has been less attacks of Phantoms and Ghouls. It's very suspicious." I then noticed a photo on top of the TV as I walked over to it and saw DJ inside. It was just DJ standing with a smile on his face on his front porch. I grabbed the sides of the frame as I held it in front of my face, "DJ…You've been a good friend…" I said as a tear ran down my face.

I then heard someone walking up the front porch and inside as Travis and Manuela came through the door. They were stomping on the welcome rug and took their boots off. "You know I'm surprised your bike can ride on the frozen and snowy roads." Manuela said.

"Yea I'm surprised too." He said. Manuela began to yawn as she was tired. She kissed Travis as she decided to go nap. Travis looked at me as I put the frame back on the TV. "Hey Mark how've you been? Sorry I've been gone for awhile." He said with a smile on his face. I was a bit happy to see him back. Travis had been expressing a lot of positivity over the past few weeks. "Hey Mark so check it! I can finally do a full cartwheel!" He said as he ran a bit and turned to his side and did a cart wheel in the living room. He then hit the wall as he fell to the ground. I just laughed at his stupidity.

"Hahahahaha! Should've shown me outside!" I said laughing harder now. Travis was rubbing his head.

"Has it been peaceful since I've been gone?" He asked.

"There hasn't been any signs of attacks. I think it's kind of weird that since Vanity showed up we've had less action. Also remember last year when Incubus and Succubus created a crap ton of Phantoms? Wouldn't you think that we would've seen them by now?" I said to him.

"Yea one would think. Oh hey I know we've been busy but you told me you had a new spell ring. I want to see it!" Travis said.

I remembered that I had that Gryphon spell ring. I quickly took it out after scanning my Driver On Ring.

" **Driver On!"**

My belt extended out as I slid the green and black ring on my finger.

" **Gryphon! Gry-Gry-Gryphon!** "

A green and yellow Familiar appeared before me as it started putting itself together. The green Familiar then looked at me cocking it's head side to side, "Oh my it's cute." I said happy. Gryphon then did a headbutt to my face knocking me over as it began flying around the house. "Wait! Gryphon! Let's talk this out!" I said as I held my hand out to it.

"Wow that thing does not like you does it?" Travis said.

"I guess so." I said sighing.

Karina ran into the house as she was holding Garuda's Ring in her hands, "Guys! There's a Phantom attacking students at the Student Union Oval on campus!" She said.

We both got ready for our fight as Travis activated his belt.

" **Driver On, please"**

Travis and I both ran out to the front porch as we both began to transform.

"Transform!" We both said.

 **"** **Flame, please. Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!"**

 **"** **L-I-O-N! Lion!"**

"I will fly over there and deal with the monster, I'll see you soon." I said as I pulled out my Falco Ring.

 **"** **Go! Falco! F-F-F-Falco!"**

A yellow spell circle appeared over my right shoulder and replaced my armor with the head of a falcon. I jumped upped into the air as I zoomed towards campus. When I landed I looked around. There was snow everywhere and in the middle of the oval was a person with blood pouring down his arm. Standing in front of him was a tall black slender man with a shaved head in ripped up white shirt with blue jeans. He was breathing heavily and I knew exactly who the man was, "Terrion…White?" I said to him. Terrion looked up at me with a wicked smile on his face.

"That's a name that has long been gone. Almost a year now exactly." He said snarling.

The guy on the ground was pointing at him, "He's a wolf like thing! That thing is not human!" He said. I ran towards the guy as I got him up and had him go off into the union. There were people looking outside at us.

"Tell me Mage. How do you know my human's name?" He said as his head began to shake all over the place.

"My name is Mark Boger. What is your name?" I said to him breathing heavily.

"I'm a Phantom. My name is Howler. If you can't guess I'm a werewolf Phantom and am the last of the Phantoms who's Gates were killed unnaturally. But I'm not as weak as my other kind. Master Wiseman gave me a magical stone like the one Kamaitachi had. This one imbues me with a massive amount of power. Do you want to see what kind of power it holds? Eh Mark." He said as a purple mist began to form and when he did I saw Travis drive in. But as his transformation began our entire world around changed and we were no longer on the campus. Instead we were taken back to that dreadful day so many years ago. But when we were taken to this reality, it was just me and Howler. Travis was nowhere to be seen.

I then noticed that I had changed back to my human self. "What the hell happened?" I thought. I then noticed I had shrunk and was reverted back to my child like self. I saw my younger self standing there with younger Travis. We were goofing off and having a blast. Howler was standing in the same spot and then walked through my kid self without being noticed. He was a grey wolf with yellow claws. He had sharp teeth from his mouth and sharp claws to match. His hair was long and he snarled everytime he talked.

"This power of mine allows me to take you to a time where you were at your weakest. You didn't have your powers by this point as well as having you reverted back to your child like self. You are going to be forced to relive this experience until you've either conquered it or break. Let's also be reminded that if you don't overcome this you will fall into despair and at that point you will be returned back to the real world as a Phantom." Howler said.

I began to step back a few feet as I grabbed the sides of my head, "No…No! I don't want to relive this!" I said scared. I then saw Terrion walk up with his gang.

"Ha ha ha. The fun will finally begin." Howler said. He stood next to me as I watched Travis's beating happen. I was reliving watching my close friend get beaten by everyone around him. My legs froze up and I felt like I did back then, helpless. "Come on Travis get up. Get up! Run!" I said as I just stood there.

I looked at my other self just standing there clenching his fists. "Come on and help him! He's your friend! Go!" I said yelling at my reflection. I watched as Terrion leaned in closer to my other self's ear.

"You've done a good job there buddy. Because of this I'll spare you from getting beat up by my boys. Think of this as a sign of our friendship." He said to my younger self. Travis then raised his hand out to me calling out my name with blood and tears. But all I did was just stand there.

"MOVE! Come on! Go help him!" I said as tears ran down my face. I then started seeing cracks form on my body as I fell on my knees. Howler began laughing.

"HAHAHAHA! Admit it Mark! You're a scared and useless person. You're a coward of the highest degree. It's been years since this happen and all've you done is run away. Tell me does Travis know what kind of pain you carry?" Howler said to me.

The reality then rewound as I watched Travis get attacked by the gang over and over again. The more I watched the more the cracks appeared all around my body. "I can't do anything. I was scared because we were just kids. I was afraid of getting beat up and thought it would be easier on me to just let Travis suffer. I did that because I didn't want to be the one getting hurt. I was young back then and it's because of that, Travis took his anger out on me." I said in pain.

"Oh that's right. Let's go back to that day when you got off of school. Travis ran up to you as he threw you on the ground." Howler said as he lifted his hand up and the entire reality changed.

I looked at Travis running up to me in the backyard and grabbed me and threw me on the ground. "How could you Mark!? I thought I was your friend? Why did you sell me out to the gang?! Why? Why? WHY?!" He said as he kept beating my child self. He had finally gotten me pinned as he grabbed my throat and began choking me. I grabbed his in hopes that the pain I would consume would give me a chance to break through. But nothing was working. "I thought you were my best friend! I thought you cared about me! I almost went to the hospital because of you! Tell me why you did it! Tell me!" Travis roared. I knew at this point my body had become knocked out from the pain taken to my head.

"No it's not like that Travis. The gang was trying to split our friendship up. I never considered them anything more than monsters! I wanted to help but I was afraid of being hurt! I was a coward! I'm so sorry Travis! I'm sorry for being a terrible friend! I didn't want to admit and I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I said as the cracks began to form quicker around my body. My life of spending with Travis these past seven months began flowing into my brain.

I remembered the time I cooked food for everyone on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I remembered all the fun me and him had when fighting together against Phantoms. The times we would play pranks on each other, we'd go out to eat just to hang out and catch up on our lives. The fun times we had with DJ and everyone else. The pain we all went through when we lost DJ. "I just want to tell him directly how sorry I am. I don't want to die knowing that I haven't closed that gap with me! I want to live!" I screamed inside my head.

Howler bent down in front of me as he grabbed my chin and lifted my head up, "Travis will be the next on my list followed by your friends. How much fun will get if I watch your Phantom and I kill Travis? It will just be like this only your hands will get bloody. I will gladly rip him piece by painful piece. So come on and despair. I want to get on with the killing!"

The cracks just wouldn't stop, "I'm going to die aren't I?" I wondered. I then heard someone yelling my name.

"Mark! Mark!" I knew that voice. It was Travis outside the reality. I then started fighting back against my problems. I started to slowly stand up as the cracks began to recede.

"How the hell can you be standing?!" Howler said surprised.

"Because I have something that I need to do and I can't do it when I'm dead!" I said to him.

Cracks started forming around the reality as I looked at Howler. "My reality…Is falling apart! How can this be? Nobody has the capacity to fight back against their weakest and darkest moments." Howler said. I then raised a fist as I stepped in close to him and did a right hook across his jaw. This sent him falling onto the ground and when it did the entire reality shattered like glass and we were brought back to the snowy campus grounds. The cracks were only formed around my right hand as I looked at Howler on the ground. I then looked up at Travis who was standing there in his transformed state.

The cracks on my hands vanished and I felt something in my clenched fist. I heard Chimera speak in my mind. "This is the first time any of my wearers have gotten a chance to tap into this kind of power. I was about to consume your body Mark but you fought back and showed me a strong will you have. I acknowledge your strength and will now give you all of my power. Take this new ring as a symbol of our friendship from here on out, we work together as a team!" He said. I then slowly opened my hand to see a blue bordered ring with a Lion's face on it.

"Howler…No…Terrion White…I know what I did as a child was unforgivable. But I'm moving past it because Travis has come to accept me for the person I am now. I will be here to protect him and I will never be afraid to fight by his side even if it kills me. You know why? Because Travis is my best friend, and I'll never let you break him anymore. I won't let anyone break him anymore! I make this oath now!" I said with bravery. I then placed my hand over my belt.

 **"** **Driver On!"**

I then struck my pose as I transformed.

" **Set! Open! L-I-O-N! Lion!"**

The yellow spell circle moved through me revealing my base form. I then reached over to my chain and pulled off the new ring I got. "You have to put that in the spell slot." Chimera said.

"Okay." I said as I slid it on my right finger and then stretched the arm out, "I'm not going to be afraid anymore!" I said as I put the ring into the belt.

" **HYPER! Go! Hy-Hy-Hyper!**

A yellow dust manifestation of Chimera erupted out of my belt and spun around me in circles and then collided with me showing off my brand new form. I had red with a blue undersuit My head had a blue lion mane with a golden lion face chestplate that covered my shoulders. I had these tassles hanging off my wrists and gold leg armor. Travis was amazed at my new form.

"Stand back and let me deal with this Travis." I said to him as I began walking.

"I see that you're a more ruthless threat. Let's see how well you fight against a werewolf buddy!" Howler said as he quickly vanished. Travis was looking all around for him but he's super speed was easy for me to track. In this form I could hear his footsteps. He then was right behind me and I spun in a circle as he had lunged to bite me. I grabbed the back of his head and lifted him high up in the air. I brought him down as his forehead made an impact on my knee. He rolled to the side and got up as he was holding his forehead. The tassles on me began to extend out and started whipping him all over his body. I then commanded them to wrap around his waist as I lifted him up into the air and slammed him into the ground. On his back you could see a chunk of a purple magical stone. I lifted him back up and slammed him into the ground.

I then had him floating in front of me as I began to rapid punch him in the chest as he started making painful noses. I then commanded the tassles to let go of him as I jumped and roundhouse kicked him in the face sending him flying away. He quickly went back into his super speed and I placed my hand over my belt.

"Mirage Magnum!" I said as a blue and yellow gun appeared. On the barrel was a lion pouncing, and on top of the gun was a giant mirror and underneath it was a slot with my ring's face imprinted in it.

Howler had quickly clawed at me as he started a relentless attack pushing me back closer to the giant building where a bunch of the students were watching the fight. The pain I was taking hurt like hell but I ignored it as Howler's attacks kept going. He finally stopped and sinked his teeth into my shoulder. Right when he did I put the gun under his neck and pulled the trigger. He got sent flying into the air from the blast and I kept firing my gun which sent out yellow mana bullets that kept sending him flying upwards into the air. He was about twenty feet up as I decided to finish it.

"I guess it's time to finish this." I said as I pulled my ring up opening the ring's mouth and placed it into the indentation on my gun.

 **"** **Hyper Magnum Strike!"**

In the mirror on my gun Chimera showed his face. The lion on my gun began glowing in a bright yellow glow. I spread my legs apart as I pointed the gun up in the air towards Howler. "Become only a memory. A memory that I will not run away from anymore." I said as I pulled on the trigger. Red sparkles of mana shot out of the gun as they formed Chimera who went soaring into the air. Howler took this opportunity to claw through him but Chimera was quicker. He had started clawing at him all over the place and when he finished he became a beam of red light that appeared behind Howler and went straight through his back leaving a giant hole in his chest. When Howler's corpse hit the ground an explosion was made as a red spell circle appeared and went into my belt.

I then felt like Howler's mana was a huge amount than what I normally intake. "Holy crap! Chimera is actually full!" I thought. Chimera then began to talk to me.

"If you kill an enemy with Hyper Magnum Strike you will not only get back the mana you had wasted but the mana from your enemy as well. Think of it as a gift I give to you 97th Mage." He said to me. "Your only downfall of this is if you get knocked out of the transformation or my attack doesn't connect with the opponent. Also it takes up a lot of mana to use this so be cautious. It should only be used as a finisher or last resort. After the shot you aren't going to have enough mana to keep going." He said to me as he snickered and faded from my consciousness.

On the ground where Howler was, laid the purple gemstone that was on Howler's back. I reached to pick it up but I heard something zooming through the air as I saw a green scissor blade go past me. I looked over to see the blade and when I looked back I saw Travis get kicked towards me.

"Protect the stone!" Travis said still transformed. I picked up the stone as I saw a green Phantom standing in front of us.

The monster had this weird green face with a navy blue and white fin hanging on its right side of its face. The creature had a green chestplate and from the waist down black attire with pointed feet. "I'm sorry about this mages but my master want's his stone back." The Phantom said.

"I don't think so! The less power Wiseman has the better of an advantage we've got." Travis said. He went to use a spell ring but the scissor blade next to me began moving on its own and slashed me across the chest causing me to throw the stone up in the air. The blade then swung at the stone like a baseball bat sending it towards the Phantom. Travis acted quickly.

" **Connect, please."**

He quickly reached in his spell circle to grab the stone but once it he placed his hand on it to grab the Phantom grabbed his wrist and began pulling it backwards. You could hear his tendons snapping and Travis began to kneel on to the ground. He then started to yell as I could see smoke coming from his hand. "What the hell?! It feels like she's burning something on my hand!" Travis screamed. I quickly shot bullets from my gun to stop her but she raised the stone in front of her as a barrier began to form absorbing the bullets.

"You boys need to wait. I'm leaving a message for the hopeful Wizard. I'm not here to fight, if I did you guys wouldn't be my only targets. This entire campus area would get wiped out. I'm a Rogue Phantom, this means that I am free to do whatever the hell I want. I'm not bound by rules like everyone else. I'm Wiseman's personal servant unlike the whore Medusa and the anger fiend Phoenix. I actually have free will." The Phantom said in a seductive tone. The Phantom them let Travis's arm go and snow began to swirl around her as the Phantom transformed into the human form which was a black girl with wild all over the place hair. When she finished she vanished as the snow fell to the ground.

Travis pulled his hand back while still moaning in pain. The steam on his arm was gone but there was nothing there. The people around us began running out taking pictures of us. I knew Travis wasn't going to be in a good condition to drive so I slid on my Falco Ring and flew us back home.

When we arrived back Travis reverted back to his human form clutching the arm that was still burning him. Manuela and everyone saw us land and came running out into the snow as Travis kneeled to the ground in pain. He put his arm into the deep snow as it began to null the burning sensation. Manuela came out with a first aid and asked to see his arm. Travis was afraid to do it because he didn't want to deal with pain.

"Oh just give me your damn arm!" Manuela said as she yanked his arm out of the snow. Once she did there were words carved into his skin and when he looked at them the burning sensation began to dull down. Everyone was in amazed at what the words said.

" _I'm Always Watching. –Gremlin"_

Manuela ran her hands down the words and once she was done the skin started to rapidly heal over and the words quickly vanished. "What the hell does that supposed to mean?!" Travis said as his body began healing.

I reverted back to my human form as we got Travis into the house. Once in we had him rest on a green sofa as we began checking to make sure he was okay. Travis looked at me, "That power of yours is amazing. You did great out there." He said holding a fist up. I bumped his fist with mine.

"Maybe I'm stronger to face Vanity again huh?" I said to him with a smile.

"If you're not quivering in your shoes." He said jokingly.

I then looked at the ground and then back at him, "Travis…I just want to say I'm sorry." I said in a low tone.

"For what?" He asked confused.

"I'm sorry for what I did when we were kids. I should've tried to protect you from Terrion and his gang. I just stood around and watched but I was your best friend and I should've at least done something. I was scared of getting hurt and I let my fear destroy you. I wanted to tell you after but I couldn't. When you and I were fighting I wanted to say something and the reason why I didn't really fight back was because I thought to myself that I deserved this. Right before I blacked out that day I had my hands around your throat. I let go of it because I thought this should be my punishment for not trying to protect you. I-I-I…" I began crying that I couldn't finish my sentence. I just couldn't explain anymore of how sorry I was. Travis had gotten out of the recliner as I began to kneel to the ground sobbing. Travis gave me a hug and let me cry until I stopped.

"Mark. There was a time that I let that hate carry with me. Once my parents died and I realized I was all alone I had gotten over my hatred. My anger turned into resentment for what I did and when I saw you last year still willing to be my friend and fight by side I had thought that all was forgiven. I didn't know you still carried that kind of burden on you." He said to me. I looked up at him with my tear covered face.

"Can you ever forgive me?" I said to him.

He then grabbed my nose and flicked my head, "If I didn't already forgive you, do you think you would be here right now?" He said with a smile on his face.

Those words gave me new found hope that everything was going to be okay. I could finally start walking forward with my life knowing that I didn't only have Travis back, but more people as well. The rest of our night was all of us staying up late ordering Papa John's Pizza and watching scary movies. Robin had to leave in the middle of it because she was going to be gone for the next week with her mother on a board meeting they needed to do and since it was last minute, she needed to pack. At 3AM in the morning all of us had passed out to the TV being on and for once in a long while I felt free.


	16. A Snake's Downfall: Gremlin vs Medusa

(Gremlin's Viewpoint)

I was walking around in the forest outside of Bowling Green happy that I had gotten a chunk of Wiseman's power. "I could get addicted to this. I'm almost tempted to say that Wizard took it and keep this power to myself." I said as I kissed the stone. I stopped walking as I felt a presence creeping up behind me. "Oh Medusa don't you know sneaking up behind people is such a bad trait to have?" I said as I turned around to see Medusa in her human form.

She outstretched her hand, "Give the crystal back. That belongs to our Master." She said with a fierce expression.

"Tell me. Is your whore like physique really going to win me over like it did to Wizard? I wonder have you told anyone about how you slept with Wizard?" I said to her. She lowered her hand as she had a shocked expression.

"How the hell do you know that?!" She barked at me.

"Let's just say I like to keep an eye on certain things around me. I also know that you killed Kamaitachi in such a bloodthirsty way. Taking his weapon and stabbing it through his mouth. Oooh that just gives me the jitters every time I think about it! Here I thought I was the psychotic one." I said jumping up and down like a child.

"You better keep your mouth shut Gremlin. You know that I have killed our kind before; I will not hesitate to do it again. Let's keep in mind that you are just a rogue Phantom, you're power is strong but we'll see what happens when I suck it out of your body. So don't tempt me you cur!" Medusa said to me.

"Cur? Well if that ain't the pot calling the kettle black. Keep in mind that if I were to go tell Master Wiseman about your crimes to our race, Wiseman will greatly end your pathetic life. We don't need traitors in our midst." I said laughing. I was doing my best to get under her skin. I wanted her to attack me, I wanted a fight, and I was thirsty for it.

"I'm not going to ask again. Give me the stone…Now!" She said as her right hand became that of a snake and had it soar through the air to try and snatch the stone from me. But I turned sideways as the attack missed.

"tck tck tck. You're really trying to push your luck aren't ya? I'll tell you what. If you want this stone so badly why don't you try and take it from me. How about a game? I'll leave the stone at my feet and you do your best at taking it from me. If you touch the stone you can have it. Sound like a deal?" I asked with a wry smile.

"I don't have time for your sick idiotic games Gremlin! If you're not going to hand over that stone then I'll just have to kill you! I've already killed Phantoms before, I'm not afraid to do it again!" Medusa said as she ran towards me. The both of us transformed as I stood directly in front of the stone.

"I'm curious to see who is better at manipulation. Me…or you?" I said as Medusa shot snakes out of her fingers that moved through the air. I summoned out two green scissor like blades and started slicing at the snakes. Medusa fired off multiple balls of mana only to have them knocked back at her from my blades. Medusa's hands became giant snake mouths absorbing her attack.

"There is no way you should've hit my spells back at me." Medusa said flustered.

"That's because my swords are coated with a special spell that allows me to send attacks back at their owners. Not a bad weapon huh?" I said. "Oh hey look? I'm still standing at my exact spot." I said with a cocky tone.

Medusa stretched out her hand as her staff appeared and she dissolved into the ground. I began looking around me as I knew she was slithering through the grass. "Well someone learned a few new spells." I said. I stabbed my two swords into the ground in front of me as I placed my hands over the handles. "But so have I." I said as my swords began to drain the life out of the grass around me. The swords started glowing green with the life force they were absorbing and when they were at full power I shot the mana back into the ground as about twenty feet radius of the area around me exploded sending Medusa flying up in the air. I then grabbed my swords as I took one step forward and zoomed up in the air. I began slicing in random directions at her before I spun my swords backwards to hit her with the back of my blades. She went zooming down to the ground as she crashed about an inch into it.

"Wh-What the h-h-hell did yo-you do!?" She said as I slowly floated back onto the ground. I placed my sword at her throat.

"I knew your spell allows you to slither underground and attack at the spot where your enemy is less able to defend. My swords have the power to drain life energy and use it as mana to create destructive spells. So I absorbed the life force of the environment and once I did I shot it back into the ground causing the entire area around me to explode. I'm one of the most dangerous Phantoms because of how my power set is as well as my weapons. Now if you are done trying to prove you're better than me, I have stuff I can go and finally get done. I've already proven to you that I'm better." I said chuckling at her.

Medusa began to laugh, "You think you're better than me? Than explain how I'm touching the stone right now?" She said with a slight chuckle. I quickly looked back at the stone but didn't see her touching it all.

"A trap?!" I said. I looked back at her but she was gone and appeared behind me as she wrapped her arm around my neck and began jabbing at my lower back. I stumbled forward first and when I tried to rip her arm off of me, she clung to me as her lower body became snake like and started coiling around my waist. Her arm that was wrapped around my throat became snake like as it began choking me hard. I had dropped my swords as I tried to fight to get her off of me. But it was no use.

"I can't believe you fell for it. With just a little bit more pressure I'll snap your neck and shatter your waist. You won't be able to survive this Gremlin. Face it, I have won." She said victoriously.

"I don't think so whore." I said in my head. I fell to my knees as I slammed my hands onto the ground creating a spell circle.

"It doesn't matter what spell you use. It won't be effective if its host is dead!" She said loudly. She then snapped my body in half but when she did my body became nothing but dirt. I then jumped out of the spell circle as I uppercut Medusa and then took my left arm to hit her right in the chest sending her flying through one of the trees in the forest.

"Whew. I actually thought I was going to die. Thank goodness I had a spell that allows me to substitute my body with my environment." I said wiping my head.

Medusa had reverted back to her human form coughing up blood. She was defeated and could barely move a muscle. I walked through all of the destruction in the forest as I picked up the gemstone and stood in front of Medusa.

"I don't know which version of you is more pathetic, your human self known as Amber or your pathetic excuse of Phantom Medusa." I said as I reverted back to my human form.

"Tell me something. That gemstone has to go back to Wiseman. How do you think he's going to feel knowing that you attacked his most prized general?" Medusa said defeated.

"Oh my poor girl. Who said I was giving it back to Wiseman?" I chuckled. Medusa's eyes widened a bit.

"What the hell are you talking about?" She said scared.

"I'm saying why should I care about a half wizard, half human? Is everyone blind to this? Our Master Wiseman is also a Ring Bearing Magician. This magical stone is going to someone who will actually help give rise to Phantoms, our new and true master: Vanity. Am I right Master?" I said. From behind a tree an old lady walked up to me as she grabbed the gemstone out of my hand.

"Indeed you are. Once I get my strength back I will be wiping out Wiseman and I will be the new Phantom in charge." Vanity said. Medusa tried to move but was completely paralyzed.

"Why…Can't I agh…Move!?" She said trying to move around.

"I see my power has begun to work. If you were at full strength you could move, but you used up a good amount of it trying to fight Gremlin." Vanity laughed.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" Medusa growled.

"I didn't do anything. My power allows me to cause everyone who has low mana or fear to become instantly paralyzed upon seeing me. I am a Fallen Angel Phantom after all. I'm at a power that humans could never achieve." Vanity explained. Medusa had this delightful fear across her face as she knew that she was forced into a corner with no way out.

"Also thanks to you coming out and telling me how you've killed our Phantoms. I'm sure Wiseman would love to hear this." Vanity said as she pressed her face against Medusa's.

"Now you will be just like that loser Phoenix who isn't allow back into the cave unless summoned. I hope you enjoy being categorized as a low level Phantom Medusa. We have to go now. Bye bye." I said as we both turned around and sped away from her location.

Upon returning to the cave to report to Wiseman I saw a mother and her son who looked like was about five years old. They had gotten close to the cave, "I don't know how they got through the forest's magical barrier, but I need to refuel my weapon's mana anyways." I thought. I zoomed towards them as I stayed in my human form. I hid behind a tree as they walked past me.

The woman had long flowing black hair, white skin, glasses and dressed in a BGSU sweat outfit. Her child was wearing a black and blue coat with his hoodie over the head and black sweatpants. The two seemed lost as they have been wondering the forest for some time. I then emerged from behind the tree.

"Excuse me. I can't help but wonder if you two are lost." I said in a care tone. I started the mother as she turned around.

"Oh my goodness! You startled me." She said relieved.

"Mommy. I'm hungry." The child said.

"I can show you a way out of this snowy forest. I travel around here all the time." I told her.

The snow in the forest didn't cover everything you could still see the life in the plants. The weather for Bowling Green was always terrible when it came to winter. It would either have snow stick or melt the moment it hit the ground. Regardless the mother was happy to hear me wanting to help her.

"Oh thank you so much! My car broke down on my way to town and I was trying to find help until my little boy here ran into the forest. He said he saw a girl with red hair in the forest and thought maybe she could help us." The mother said.

"Red hair girl? Ah Amber. They mistook Medusa as a human. Meaning they were close by when we had our fight." I thought.

I pointed to a random direction of the forest, "Just go straight that way and you'll find the road to get out of here." I said to them.

The mother was so happy as she picked up her son and quickly moved in the direction. "Thank you so much! Do you want to come with us? I have a friend who is on his way to get us. We can give you a ride." The lady asked kindly. I shook my head as the two turned their back on me. I quickly summoned out my swords as I began walking behind them.

"You should have never come into this forest." I said to the mother. The mother didn't even have time to turn her head as I took one of my scissor blades and pierced her in the back. I lifted the blade up as it lifted her body. I then slammed her body onto the ground as her kid fell. I then repeatedly stabbed her corpse multiple times with the same blade as I began laughing.

I stopped stabbing her body as the child was frozen in fear as he saw his mother's corpse. He couldn't believe what was going on. I left the sword in her mother's skull as I walked towards the child. I raised the sword to my side and swung as I sliced through his neck. Right before the body fell to the ground I slammed my sword into his open wound.

"Now my weapons. Absorb the blood and make yourself stronger." I said with a gleeful smile. Two green spell circles appeared around the corpses as their bodies became dried from blood. The only thing left was the bones and skin as my swords became a dark red. The red color only stayed around for about a few minutes and then they went back to a more light green color. I grabbed the weapons as I got a look at their restored shine.

"It's been so long since you've guys had a nice snack isn't it?" I said as the swords vanished from my hands and I walked away from the corpses I left behind.


	17. Mage Attack, An Unlikely Alliance

Author's Note: I only have 3 chapters left of this book and I will be doing my best over the next month to finish this up. Because of this there is a small hiatus on Dino Thunder. I do promise you that I will have a chapter of Dino Thunder up next month before Christmas. I'm hoping to have Book 2 of Wizard finished by the first week of December. So stay with me on that. Other than that here's Chapter 17 and I hope you guys enjoy it!

* * *

(Travis's Viewpoint)

Manuela and I were biking out in the countryside. She had wanted to see the little towns that surrounded Bowling Green. I had taken her out to Portage, and then we went out to Haskins. While in Haskins where it was cold and there was light snow on the ground, she decided to swing on the swing set. She was swinging while being really quiet. I just sat on the swing that was available next to her. "Hey why are you so quiet? You seemed to have been having a blast at Portage." I said concerned. She stopped swinging as she looked down at the ground.

"The last time I was swinging like this was with my sister. I'm just a little depressed that I had thought I had moved on and accepted her death but now she is alive and doesn't even recognize me. Plus she is now our enemy. During the time she died I wished so much for her to live, and now I'm wishing that she just go rest in peace. I feel like a terrible sister wishing for my own sister's death." She said with a tear running down her face. I reached out and wiped it away.

"I can understand how you feel if we ignore the family part. We are all feeling the same with DJ. It's not easy and I am hoping that I will find a way to break them free from Makoto's control." I said trying to give her a little hope. "I'm at least hoping I can. If I know anything about spells, if I can beat Makoto maybe I can break the spell she has on them." I thought to myself. I then heard some heavy breathing from behind me as I turned around to see Amber with blood all over her. I took my black gloves off as I slid my rings on ready for a fight.

"Hel…Help…Me…" Amber said as she fell onto the ground. I was greatly confused at what was going on.

"Why is she all bloody? She seemed to have gotten attacked but I know it wasn't Mark; otherwise she wouldn't be walking towards me. Was it one of the Phantoms?" I questioned. Keeping my guard up I walked towards Amber as she was slightly flinching and shaking. Her clothes which were a pink T-shirt and grey sweats were ripped and filled with holes. She reached out to me as she grabbed my ankle. "P-Please…Help me…Please…" She said with tears running down her face.

"Travis you can't help her. Whatever got her into this predicament was probably for her own good. I would just kill her now and end it." Manuela said to me. I looked back at Amber who was close to passing out.

"Why can't I do it? I can just put a silver bullet in her head and it will all be over. I can finally kill off this one monster that has destroyed my life and I can finally move on. So why can't I kill her?" I said gritting my teeth. I then gave in as I picked her up and put her on my shoulder. I then turned around to see Manuela worried about my actions. I walked back to her as I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her.

"What are you doing? You know she will turn on you at a moment's notice. Do you want to go through that again?" Manuela said with a stern voice.

"I'm not going to let that happen again. But I just can't leave her here. I need to know what happened because it could affect us. Plus she probably knows where Wiseman is. She's useful for now." I said.

"I also want to know what attacked her to make her like this. If it could cause her to get this beat up, then it means that there is a Phantom out there stronger than her. But the only ones I can think of is Phoenix, Vanity, and Wiseman." I thought to myself. I then rolled up my sleeve as I looked at the faded scars left by Gremlin. "Or was it her?" I wondered.

I then felt Manuela stand behind me as she hid behind me. I looked at her and then forward as I saw Makoto walking towards us with a smile on her face. "Kind of chilly to be out here don't you think?" She said with a wry smile. "Thanks for taking care of my Phantom. I would like to have her back." She said stretching her arm out to us.

"If I refuse?" I said getting ready for a fight.

"Then your resistance will be met with force." Makoto said as she snapped her fingers. An orange and green spell circle appeared on the ground in front of her. Two people emerged wearing black cloaks that covered them from head to toe. The only thing different about the cloaks were the hoods. The one on the left was a red hoodie and the one on the right was a green hoodie. You couldn't see the faces but that didn't last long as the figures removed their hoods and you could see Maria Urbieta and DJ in perfect health.

"I knew DJ was alive. I've known for a while." I said to Makoto.

"Ooh. How did you know?" She asked amused.

"Some time ago he was keeping an eye on us from a distance. I could sense his mana. I could never sense mana before but for some reason I knew it was him. I guess I'm just getting more powerful with my magic." I said as I pulled out the photo DJ had dropped. "He eluded me but had dropped this, a photo of us all hanging out. But what I want to know is how he's alive." I said as I slid my rings on my fingers.

"A magician never reveals her secrets. If you truly want to know then how about you fight them and if you can beat them I'll let you know exactly what I did." Makoto said with a sly expression on her face.

Maria and DJ both held their hands out in front showing a black hand ring with a red outline. I held out my gold outline ring as we placed them over our waists.

 **"** **Driver On, now."**

The voice for the belt was deeper than mine. A belt appeared magically appeared around their waists. The belt was primarily black with a red hand like their rings. The levers still silver but I could sense how evil the belts were.

 **"** **Driver On, please."**

My belt formed as all three of us hit the left side levers and slid on our transformation rings. Maria had an orange stone with a claws on the sides and DJ had a green version. I moved my faceguard down on my Flame Ring.

"Transform." The two said in a monotone.

"Transform." I said as I brushed my transformation hand over my shoulder.

" **Sha Ba Doobi Touch to Transform. Change, now."**

Maria and DJ stretched their arms out on their sides as a red and green spell circle formed from their fingertips and moved through them showing off their new forms.

Maria had an orange mask with the claws around it just like her ring. She also had this black armor with a red line around the neck. The black armor only covered her shoulders and extended down a bit to the base of her neck. From there the red line ran down her front side. The suit was this beige color with the belt around it. There was this skirt under the belt and Maria had two black gloves on her hands. Maria also had an orange jewel on her chest. She had black armor on her kneecaps and her feet up to her kneecaps were black with some wings on the side. At the top of the armor were two orange stones. DJ's form was the same but you just had to swap out her orange stone for DJ's green stone.

" **"** **Sha Ba Doobi Touch to Transform. Flame, please. Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!"**

I lifted my hand out in front of me as a red spell circle appeared and moved its way through me. I then stood there as I waited for the two to make a move. "I don't know how well they are going to fight. But I'm guessing they aren't going to fight like Phantoms." I thought as I started to slowly breathe. DJ was the first to make a move; he used the wind to propel himself towards me. He went for a right hook but I lowered my body under and around as I went to back fist him. My attack then met his hand grabbing it.

"What the hell? There is no way he could've had the reaction time to do that." I thought surprised. DJ then pulled on my hand bring me forward as Maria quickly appeared giving me a set of two punches in the gut, solar plexus, and then a palm strike to my upperchest. DJ had let go of my hand as the two twirled in opposite directions and kicked me sending me flying onto the ground. I rolled on the ground as I was trying to breathe but the two didn't stop there. Maria had her right hand transform into a black claw as she jumped up into the air and came to impale me. I ignored the fact that I was having hard time breathing and rolled to avoid the attack. I then tried to stand but my body was still trying to figure out what to do. My throat fell like it was backed up. DJ then ran and jumped off of Maria's back as his hands became engulfed in a green mana. He went to bring his fist down and I put my right hand up too block. Once he hit my wrist with his strike, he took his opposite hand to uppercut my block and then spun around and hit me with his first hand into my side which felt like a strong gust of wind was trying to send me flying. I kept my ground and the attack helped me finally breathe again.

Maria then ran up to me as she jump kicked me causing me to stumble back. DJ went to kick with his left leg to my face but I grabbed his foot. He then lept off the ground with his right foot and kicked me across the face as Maria followed up with a few swipes at my chest sending sparks off my form. She swiped in an X like pattern before roundhouse kicking me. I fell on my back as DJ quickly got behind me and grabbed me by the throat. I brought both my hands down on his wrist but right when they should've made impact he let go and spun around me as he kicked my legs causing me to fall down. I tried to get up but Maria was quickly in front of me with an uppercut of her claw. I backflip into the air and DJ did his own back flip as he kicked me in the side and sending me rolling in the air until I hit the ground.

"TRAVIS!" Manuela called out to me.

I tried to fight back against the pain and beating I was getting. "Flame Style isn't working. There is something wrong with how they are attacking. Maria has insane strength and it's almost like DJ is able to predict my moves when I try to do something. Right now this fight isn't good. I didn't fully think that they would have tricks up their sleeves. What I need to do right now is get Amber and Manuela out of here." I said as I looked over at the two. The two mages went to make a move as I reached for my chain and pulled out Hurricane Dragon. Right before then Makoto raised her hand which caused the two mages to stop.

"You don't have to keep doing this Travis. All you need to do is hand Medusa over to me and I will walk away." She said with a smile.

I was breathing heavily and with every breath I was coming up with some sort of plan to get us all out. I was thinking about how my opponents are going to respond and tried to stay at least five steps ahead of them. "I'm sorry but you're not going to get her." I said.

"I don't understand why you would protect someone who raped and murdered you. Someone who just played with your heart like a puppet until she was done with it. Oh yes I know how she withdrew Dark Wizard from you, nothing about my Phantoms is kept from me. So tell me, why would you protect her?" Makoto said with her hand outstretched to me.

I slid my Flame Style ring off and put my new one on. "I don't have to explain anything to you. Not a damn thing." I said to her.

"Well then. I guess I'll just have to use force. It's fine by me since you won't be able to do anything to stop me." She said as she snapped her fingers. The two mages raised their spell hands as their rings vanished and a new spell ring formed.

"Oh that's just not fair." I said as they hit the side of their levers and scanned their rings. I quickly acted on mine getting ready to change forms.

" **Blaze Stream! Understand?"**

" **Tempest Stream! Understand?"**

DJ and Maria stuck their hands out towards me as a blazing red mana stream shot out. DJ's was a green mana stream with wind forming around it.

 **"** **Hurricane…Dragon! Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow!"**

A green spell circle appeared in front of me absorbing the blow as a green dragon flew around me. The spell circle was pushing the streams back. Then when the dragon flew into me, the spell circle took the opposing force from the attacks and moved through me. The streams stopped the moment I transformed and during the commotion I grabbed and slipped on a new spell ring.

 **"** **Copy, please"**

In a second I had summoned six more copies of my form that circled around DJ and Maria. Me as well as two of the copies grabbed our finisher spell rings and quickly scanned them.

" **Special! Thunder! The best!"**

The three of us shot out three green dragons made of electricity that zoomed towards the two. DJ got in the way of the attacks protecting Maria and I took this time to fly over to Amber and Manuela. "Keep your face buried into my chest. I'm going to try and fly us back to DJ's as quick as possible and you're face will get really cold." I said as I grabbed both of them. I bent down and pushed off the ground as I began flying away from the battle and towards home.

(Makoto's Viewpoint)

Travis flew off as his copies began vanishing and the attack he did to Gale finished. Gale fell to the ground after the attack as he and Flare reverted back to their human selves. I slowly began walking towards Gale. "Travis has gotten a lot stronger. He's growing stronger by the day. I wonder if he knew about the special tricks I put into his friends. If he did then that would mean he's getting smarter too. This is getting very interesting. With his ever growing power I might be able to finally begin the Eclipse." I said as I looked at Gale.

He had burn marks over his body and opened wounds all over him. I placed my hand on his back as a rune appeared that began healing him up. Once his body finished he stood up. "I think it's time we go home. Medusa will soon come back to us plus I'm quite interested in the events that are going to happen." I said as I scanned a ring.

 **"** **Teleport, now."**

A purple spell circle appeared in front of us as it spun around. We teleported back to my lab, shortly after arriving I commanded Gale and Flare to their capsules. Once they walked in and the door shut, a colorful liquid filled up. Gale's was green and Flare's was orange. "I need you guys to get stronger. You two will be a part of something magnificent." I said as I walked over to the final capsule that was black just like the others with a glass window where you can see the person's face. I put my hands onto the empty container, "I will find someone who is suited to be Aqua. When I do I can start moving forward onto the Eclipse. The Obelisks will rise and I will cast the entire world into one huge Underworld." I said with a hopeful tone.

"Don't keep me waiting Aqua. I am right here waiting for you." I said chuckling.

(Travis's Viewpoint)

We had just gotten to DJ's as I hurried up and got the two inside so they can warm up. Manuela quickly ran inside to get warm and warn everyone who I was coming in with. I held Amber who was still fainted, in my arms. I walked up the steps slowly as I looked down at Amber, "Why can't I let you go?" I thought. Before I had the chance to think anymore Mark came running out of the house.

"Travis! What the hell are you thinking?! Do you know who you're going to walk through that door with right now?!" He said pretty stern.

"Yeah I know." I said back to him.

"If you can't kill her while she is weak then I will have to do it." Mark said. But I stopped him from making any moves that would harm Amber.

"You're not going to touch her. She is useful with our fight against Vanity. Her wounds are from Phantoms, I want to find out what so I know what we are dealing with. The wounds aren't Vanity's or Phoenix. It's something else I know that for sure." I said to him.

"How can you deduce your reasoning?" Mark asked confused.

"I've been able to sense mana a lot more recently. I don't know how to explain it but I'm able to know who's who through the feel of their mana they give out. Trust me if she does anything you have my permission to slay her. But first I want to find out what else we are up against." I said to him. I walked past him as we both walked into the house. I placed Amber down on the sofa. I could tell without looking that everyone was either glaring at her, or really concerned with me.

"I guess I'm not getting any sleep tonight." I thought to myself. I turned around and faced everyone, "I'm going to stay up tonight and keep an eye on her. I'm not letting my eyes off of her so you guys don't need to worry." I said to them. I could sense their emotions, as territorial as it was, loosened up. Manuela came up to my side.

"I guess I am too. I'm not letting her slip you back into her fingers." Manuela said as she wrapped her arms around my right arm.

"I hope you know what you're doing Travis. I'm against her being here, but I trust that you know what you're doing." Karina said as she kept an evil glare at Amber.

"If she tries to hurt anyone here I will kill her myself." Shawn and Mark said together.

I then looked around to see that Robin wasn't around, "Where's Robin?" I asked.

"She had to take care of a rape case. She's going to be pretty busy the next few days." Karina said.

Some time passed as Amber was still passed out. Nobody wanted to tend to her wounds and had mentioned that they might just make her condition worse because of how they feel. I didn't really want to have to be the one to do it, but I did. Everyone had gone to bed. Karina was the last one because she wanted to be by my side in case something should happen. Manuela had convinced Karina to go to bed as we tended to her wounds.

"I don't know what it is, but I don't feel the need right now to kill her." Manuela said.

"You don't have to lie to me. I understand you do." I said.

"No I'm being serious. The feeling went away some time ago. I don't understand why though. You would think that after what she had done to you I would have taken matters into my own hands." She said with her head on my shoulder.

"I think no matter what Manuela, you're not the type to kill. You have an over caring heart. I think you were meant to protect more than to kill." I said holding her hand in mine.

"Regardless, I'm super scared right now knowing that one of your most dangerous enemies is sleeping right in front of us with no care in the world. Tell me the real reason why you can't kill her. I could tell earlier that you knew but you didn't want to tell everyone." She said.

"She's in her human form. This form brings back so many memories I had and I think subconsciously I'm holding myself back. It's easy for me to kill Phantoms, they don't have anything human about them, but when I see human skin I think there is something that just flips around inside my head. I understand it's something I need to work on and I'm trying but it's kind of hard knowing that the time I should try is laying right in front of me." I said bothered by how I was saying it.

"I think it's because you once had a history together and you're just holding onto those emotions still. You did tell me that she was the first one to break through all of your walls and showed some care for you. Even though those feelings weren't real, you held onto them." Manuela said to me.

"I think you're spot on." I said.

"Want something to drink? There's bottle water in the fridge." She offered me.

"Yea I guess I'll take one." I said to her. She gave me a kiss on my cheek as she got up off the couch and went into the kitchen. I then stared at Amber.

"Wake up. I know you were listening." I said to her. Amber slowly opened her eyes as she moved up without any pain.

"Aww I wanted to listen to more of your lovey-dovey conversation. Will make it that more interesting when she dies." Amber said to me.

"I would refrain from making any future threats while you're in this household. That's still my girlfriend." I said with an angry expression.

"Fine I'll play this game with you. So tell me why did you save me? Did you really miss me that badly?" She said with a cunning smile.

"Who attacked you? That mana that is emanating off of you is nothing I've ever felt before." I questioned.

"Going straight to the point huh? Well if you need to know it was Gremlin. I'm sure you know who she is. She was one of the kids on that Cave Exploration when you got your powers. Phoenix is too. Phoenix is the guy that was talking to you, the tall white guy with light brown hair who was being racist towards you." She said with a chuckle.

"What does that information do for me?" I asked her.

Manuela walked back into the room holding the bottles of water as she slowly made her way back to my side. "So you're finally awake." She said to her. Manuela stayed up against me.

"Oh I remember when I used to be that close to him." Amber said chuckling as she tried to get a rise out of Manuela.

"Focus on answering the question Amber. Why do I need to know that information?" I said sternly.

"Well probably by now Master Wiseman has been told of my flaws and I've probably got demoted in our forces. Phoenix has too. I bring this up because I don't trust Vanity. Ever since Vanity has joined our ranks, she has been moving up as quick as she can. She demoted and casted out Phoenix and now it seems to be my turn. My loyalty belongs to Master Wiseman who will bring a new era. An era where Phantoms thrive. But I feel like Vanity is going to do what she can to overthrow Wiseman. So I propose this. You, Mark, Phoenix, and I fight Vanity and end her life. If she goes left unchecked she will be a major threat to Wiseman, and to your friends. Phoenix and I are quite strong and with your All Dragon form and Beast's Hyper we might just be strong enough to beat her." Amber said to me.

"How do we know this isn't just some trick?" Manuela said.

"You don't. But I'm sure sooner or later you guys are going to have to fight Vanity again and based on what I heard from her talk with Wiseman, the only reason you guys were able to survive was by letting one of your friends die. Who was the pathetic old geezer?" Amber said. I quickly got up and grabbed her by her throat.

"You really are trying to push your luck aren't you snake!" I said with anger welling up inside of me.

"Oh I love it when you get aggressive. I've missed this. Fine I'll keep my tongue in my mouth next time." She said. Manuela had to get my hands off her. I put her back on the ground since I didn't notice that I had lifted her off the ground.

"So what I heard about you getting stronger is true. Tell me does it feel like you're body is becoming overwhelmed with mana? Is fighting transformed feeling a lot easier for you out of nowhere?" Amber said cocking her head to the side.

"Travis has been able to do things he hasn't been able to do before." Manuela said.

"Yea the ability to sense mana is something mages can't really do. Based on Wiseman talking to Vanity, Travis has done a few other amazing things as well. I would be careful getting stronger, mana is still a type of energy source and so far it can become an overwhelming sensation that might cause you to want to unleash as much as you can. It might even force you to go into All Dragon and attack your friends. Just because you're getting more powerful doesn't mean that it's going to be a good thing for you." Amber said as she walked towards the door.

"So you're just leaving now?" I said to her.

"In one month from now Vanity is going to make her move on attacking you guys here. I overheard her mumbling the other day. She is trying to gain more of her lost mana and when she is ready she will be ready to take you all down. I will work on my end to get Phoenix to work with us. That should give you enough time to be prepared for whatever is going to happen. The next time I see you, will be on the battlefield hopefully." Amber said as she stepped out into the night and quickly vanished.

"I don't like her." Manuela said.

"I don't either. I don't want to fight side by side with Phantoms, but it would seem for now we share a common goal: Take down Vanity. That gives me one month to try and get stronger. At least I'll run into Phantoms and Ghouls on the way as practice for the big fight." I said to her. I walked up to the door, closed and locked it. Manuela and I went to bed as we decided to rest up.

"Am I going to have to rely on All Dragon? I almost didn't get by last time and almost killed Manuela and my friends. I need to find a way to fight without having Dragon controlling me. If I were to go into that form again, I might not be able to come out of it." I thought as we got ready for bed.


	18. Corruption

An entire month had passed as we got ready for our confrontation against Vanity. I had told Mark and everyone else about what Amber had said to us. We hadn't seen her since then. We ran into Gremlin again at one point who was curious to know where Amber was. We told her we didn't know and I had thought that we would've had to have a battle with her. Gremlin left us alone as she seemed pretty adamant to find her.

On the day of Vanity's assault Amber showed up at my doorstep along with Phoenix in his human form. They were standing at our doorstep waiting for us to let them in. "I have to be out of my mind." I said to myself. I let the two walk in as we began to strategize.

Amber was wearing a purple shirt with pink stripes. She had her red hair down and wearing glasses on her face. She had these faded blue jeans with the waistline having sparkling glitter on them and plain black tennis shoes. Tyler had a black ripped vest with a white shirt underneath. He wore black baggy combat like pants. He had short dirty blonde hair. Unlike Amber who had a scrawny body, Tyler had a very ripped like appearance that was different than when I first met him on the bus for the cave exploration.

"Does anyone else think that we just let Phantoms walk into DJ's house now?" Shawn said aloud.

"I would watch your mouth you little bug." Tyler said.

"Calm down Tyler." I said to him.

He then looked at me, "I don't care for my human's name. It's Phoenix to you." He said irritated at me.

"When you guys are in your human forms I will call you by your human names. It's a lot easier on all of us." I said to them.

"If it's what Travis wants we will respect it. Right birdy?" Amber said to him.

"TSK! You better be glad that we are fighting side by side with this kind of truce. Otherwise I would burn you and this entire house down mage." He said.

"So where will Vanity be at?" Mark asked sitting next to me.

"I've been keeping tabs on her for the past month which is why none of you have seen me. Every week she returns to where you guys fought her. Today she is at that place. On certain days of the week Vanity will stay at her place where she was sealed and not leave. She does this to restore mana as well as gain more of it by the purple stone she has acquired. She has grown exceptionally strong." Amber said to us. Tyler just kept his angry look on his face.

"Why are you always pissed off?" Karina asked.

"None of your business wrench!" He said.

Amber hit him in the shoulder, "I told you to be friendly." She said.

Tyler stood up and stormed outside. Amber then looked at all of us, "I'm sorry about that. He's just pissed because of Vanity." She said with a smile.

A noise was made in the little office where Shawn was busy making rings. "FINALLY! I finished them!" Shawn said excitedly. "Travis! Here these two new rings should help you out!" He said as he ran out of the room and up to me.

I took the rings as I looked at them. There was an orange one with a dragon having his tail wrapping in circles and another one that had a dragon with some kind of air flowing from its nostrils. "Hey these look cool! Let's go outside and try them out!" I said excited.

We ran outside as I took the first one and scanned it.

 **"** **Extend, please."**

A red spell circle appeared in front of me as I punched my hand through it. My hand shot out like it was a rubber arm and then I pulled it back to me. "This could be useful!" I said excited.

I then slid Extend off and replaced it with the last one. "I bet this one can create mists. Or maybe makes steam to cover myself!" I said curious to what it does. I slid the ring on and placed it over my belt.

 **"** **Smell, please."**

"Wait a minute…Smell?" I said as a sizzling sound echoed from the belt.

An orange mist erupted out of my body as it caused everyone to put their hands over their noses and start backing away from me as quickly as they could. "What a wretched scent!" Tyler said from afar. "What the hell is wrong with you!? Cancel that spell!" Tyler said furious. I took the ring off and the smell that was shot out from my body returned back to my original scent, which was not disgusting.

"I literally felt like I was going to get knocked out by that." Karina said.

"I think it would be best if you don't ever use that spell again." Amber said.

"Oh I'm going to puke. I made a terrible ring." Shawn said.

Robin had just pulled up from work as she got out of the car with about ten bags of groceries on her arm. "Hey guys! I got some food for us to eat before we-. Oh shit what is that smell!" She said as she dropped the bags of food on the ground to cover her nose.

Suddenly everyone's nose was back to smelling something not as putrid as Mark and I helped bring in the groceries. They were able to put all of the food away and everyone began eating food. Amber and Tyler refused to eat saying that they didn't need food to survive. They only eat because it helps them blend in with not being Phantoms.

I noticed that Shawn was working on something in the ring making room. I walked over as everyone was enjoying themselves. He was at work on another ring but was having a hard time trying to concentrate. "I know this ring will be better! It has to!" He said as he was carefully using the tools to smooth out the gem.

"Shawn buddy. Can I come in?" I asked him.

Shawn looked up at me with a face of defeat, "That Smell Ring was useless! The Extend ring can be useful but what can that Smell Ring even do?" He said beating himself up. "DJ entrusted me his own power to create rings. He created many useful rings. Defend, Excite, Drill, even Bind! So why can't I make a ring good? What is wrong with me?!" He said holding the tools in his hands.

I placed my hand on his shoulder, "Don't beat yourself up like this. Every ring that has been made has a purpose. I'm sure I can find a way to make the Smell Ring work. Keep in mind that DJ even made spell rings that aren't suit for battle. Look at Dress Up. That ring can't help me in fight, but if I need to change my appearance it helps. Look at the Time Ring, I can't use it for fighting. DJ has made rings that aren't combat oriented but I still get by. So don't worry about it." I said comforting him.

"You're right I shouldn't give up because of one ring. I'll keep making this ring and when I do it will greatly help you out I'm sure of it!" He said with his confidence back.

I watched as my friend back to work with new motivation. "DJ. He's really trying his hardest for you. He's come along way since I first met him. He was an annoying child and now he's growing up. I'm going to try my best to get you back…And to bring you back home to us no matter the cost." I thought. I went to turn around but before I did I saw a ring lying on the desk in the corner. "Hey Shawn what's that ring?" I asked. I had seen the ring before but it always eluded me.

"What this one? Looks like a plamonster." He said confused. "I found it stuffed in a drawer over here.

"This is the one that I got after Dark Wizard. It's been about eight months and I haven't scanned this ring. I looked at the ring with the picture of a purple rock like monster on it. I turned around as I entered the room. "Hey guys I think this is a new Familiar. I don't know why I haven't used it but let's introduce the new guy to his friends!" I said in a happy tone. I summoned out all of my buddies and Mark summoned out Gryphon. The animals all gathered on the glass table as I scanned the ring.

" **Golem, please"**

A purple plastic kit formed in front of all of the others as the other Familiars were excited to see their new friend. Once Golem put himself together I took his ring and put it in the slot that was his head.

"Hey there Golem." I said to him.

Golem had these purple buff arms, legs and little purple boulders on his chest. His eyebrows were slanted down with a silver lining over his eyes. He had silver hands and his purple boulders were surrounded by a silver chest plate.

"Oh he's so cute!" Karina and Manuela said.

"Looks like a pretty tough one huh?" Mark said.

Kraken hovered over to him as he nodded to Golem. Golem began to freak out. He started looking left and right and then spun in circles. He then raised his arms and they stretched out as it punched Kraken on his back. Golem started running and didn't know that he was on an elevated table and accidentally ran off the edge of the table falling onto the floor. I picked him up and placed him in front of my face. "Hey Golem you don't have to worry we aren't going to hurt you. We are all your friends here." I said. I went to pat his head and he put his arms up in a cross afraid of me touching him. I slightly patted his head as he slowly lowered his arms. "See I'm not going to hurt you." I said comforting him. He looked down at my hand and then back up at me. He then looked at his friends on the table who were helping Kraken get back up. He then turned back at me as he raised his arms towards me. He looked like he was wanting me to give him a hug. I brought him closer as he shot his arms up as they hit me in the face. I ended up dropping him on reaction as he kept his arms out and grabbed the edge of the couch. He pulled himself up and began running away from us. He was pretty quick at maneuvering himself from the living room. Tyler was laughing hysterically.

"AHAHAHAHA He punched you! His own master in the face! Ooooh that's hysterical! What a disobedient Familiar!" He said uncontrollably. Amber had a little bit of a snicker.

"I thought it was cute with what you did. But that thing obviously didn't like you." She said.

I ignored them as I picked up Kraken. "Are you okay buddy?" I said to him. Kraken made a sound letting me know he was a bit sore. He then flew back to his friends as they decided to go play somewhere in the house.

"So what's our strategy of dealing with Vanity?" Phoenix said with a serious tone.

Karina got up out of her chair as well as Manuela to allow Amber and Tyler to sit across from Mark and I. We began discussing how we were going to take down Vanity. I got up and grabbed my Drago-Timer. I placed the Timer in the middle of the table.

"This here is going to be a major help. I'm not entirely sure where my mana stands but when I wear this I can cancel out the fear that Vanity emits. But I will only use the true power I have which is All Dragon as a last resort. If I go into All Dragon I will allow Amber to suck out all of my mana, just enough to break free from Dragon's control." I said to them.

"What happens when you are inside All-Dragon? We couldn't even break through to you back when you last used this." Mark said.

"I'm having a battle with Dragon. If I can overpower him I can get in control of myself. But I don't have access to my powers so it's just human versus Phantom. At least that's what it feels like. When Dragon uses up more of my mana while in control the weaker he becomes and the easier the fight is. That's why when Manuela scanned the sword over the ring she, subconsciously, drained a lot of mana from me. When the attack connected I was able to take down Dragon. In a way I'm fighting to gain control of myself. Dragon may be helping me fight the Phantoms, but he has on multiple times shown that he's not a friend. He want's full control of me because I can cause just as much damage if he's in this body. That's why All Dragon must be used as a last resort. When I got the Drago-Timer he mentioned to me that he will have control, it's the requirement for obtaining all this raw power." I said to them.

Amber had this smile on her face, "You're telling me that if you despaired you would give rise to something even grander? I'll be looking forward to that one day." She said with a seductive giggle.

"Why are you so obsessed with me?" I asked her.

"That's something that will remain knowledge only to me. If you want to find out you will have to do something for me." She said to me.

"I'm not taking you back." I quickly responded.

"So that's the plan?" Tyler said with irritation.

"Here's the plan. Phoenix and Mark are going to distract Vanity. Mark you are to go into Hyper as soon as you can. I will back you two up with my different Dragon Styles as well as offer more of a distraction from Vanity. With the six of us fighting this will give us time to have Amber suck out Vanity's mana. While Amber is sucking out Vanity's mana she will also turn her to stone. If we do that all of us can deliver a huge final blow that will end her. Amber I trust you will know when to strike?" I said looking at her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry about me, I know exactly what I'm doing. Just remember Travis that my mana power increases when I suck mana out of something. I'm only going to be stronger so I hope you don't regret this later." She giggled.

I stared at her. "I'm going to take my chances."

I looked around at everyone, "If the fight starts to get out of hand I'm going into All Dragon. At that point I need all of you to clear the battlefield. I can't have Dragon see you guys. He will attack you. I need to have a huge focus on this fight and can't be distracted." I warned them.

"What makes you think this plan will work? We are dealing with a Phantom who's class is that of a Fallen Angel. I'm not sure how much a Greek creature, a bird, a lion, and a dragon are going to be able to accomplish against something that has been casted out from Heaven. So you really think this plan is going to even work? Let's also keep in mind how easy it was to overpower her last time based on what has been told to us. But it's been two months since then and now she has been gaining more power as we speak. I may die and get brought back to life but I honestly don't see how you're going to win with such a lame trick in the book." Tyler said.

"I'm sure it will. I believe in this team. If we stick to the plan everything should work out." I said to them.

"Pfft you better hope the plan is fool proof. Remember your friends' lives are on the lines." Tyler said.

I stared at Tyler, "I wonder if you're human side was always this upset." I said to him.

"According to my host's memories he wasn't, of course he didn't have the curse of dying and then being reborn over and over again. My host was a hard ass I'll tell you that. Would you believe he would beat people who hurt his family? Apparently his mother kept having bad run in's with people who would take advantage of her kindness. That's probably his only good trait he had. He acted more like those hard asses you would see in juvenile jails. I would go after his mother and make her despair, shamed that after her son went missing she moved out of Bowling Green." Tyler said.

"You can shut up anytime now monster." Mark said getting irritated.

"Did I hit a nerve animal boy?" Tyler said trying to start a fight.

"You don't get to talk about killing a mother in front of me. I've already lost my parents to your kind. I also lost my adoptive mother who despaired right in front of my eyes because of your kind. You don't get to talk to me about making a mother a victim of your sick twisted ideas." Mark said as he grabbed the side of his belt.

"Oh I remember Wiseman saying something about a female Primordial Mage. Klarissa Wells, the 96th owner of the Beast Driver? Tell me, did you kill her or is she as a Phantom still running around? If you killed her tell me, how broken did it make you?" Tyler said.

"MARK!" I yelled as Mark quickly stormed over to him and punched him across the face. Mark then grabbed him by the throat as he punched him more across the jaw and then threw him onto the ground. Amber just stared at her nails.

"Oh yea we are going to really beat Vanity now." She said picking her fingers.

Shawn ran out into the room as we both ran and grabbed each of Mark's arms. "YOU DON'T GET TO SPEAK HER NAME TO ME EVER! YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT HER! NOT A DAMN THING!" He roared.

"Mark calm down! Don't let him get to you! You need to calm down." Shawn said. I got a look at Mark's face as a tear ran down it.

"You don't know a damn thing about her. You dare speak her name again and I will rip your fricking head off. I will keep killing you over and over until you have learned your lesson!" Mark said. I got a good grip on Mark as the entire room quickly fell silent and everyone other than Amber looked at Mark. Tyler had blood falling out of his mouth as he looked chuckling at Mark.

I took Mark out of the living room and into the hallway. Mark jerked his arm out of my hand as he took his hands and open palmed the wall. "ARRGHH!" He yelled through his teeth. He fell to the ground putting his arms around his legs.

"Who's Klarissa Wells?" I asked him. Mark just broke down crying.

"I can't tell you much. It's a story for another time. You would think after a year I would have moved on by now. All I can say is she was the last person who had this cursed belt. She was a mother who raised me and taught me how to survive in the wild after I lost my parent's to Ghouls. The Ghouls showed up after I was admitted to the hospital, and around the time you moved here." He said with his head buried in between his arms. I was sitting next to him.

"I guess when we split you had it hard on your end." I said to him.

"I did. Funny huh? My parent's die to Ghouls and yours die to Phantoms. What's more is we grew to be stronger people too. We even became wizards with our goofy looking rings." He said laughing.

"I sometimes wonder what our lives would like if none of this stuff ever happened to us. Where would we be?" I asked.

"We probably would never see each other ever again. My parents were adamant that I never see you again." He said to me.

"Are you feeling better now?" I asked him.

"Yeah I'm feeling better. I just lost my cool for a second." Mark said drying his face.

I stood up and stretched my hand out to him. "Let's go get this fight going." I said.

Mark reached out and grabbed my hand. "Yeah we got a monster's ass to kick." He said with a confident smile.

"GUYS! Vanity's here!" Tyler yelled.

We ran to the living room, "Manuela get my sword." I told her. She grabbed it and tossed it to me.

" **Copy, please."**

A red spell circle appeared over my blade, "You know what to do I hope." I said giving her the original."

"I did it before." She said.

She grabbed my hand and kissed it, "Come back safely." She said.

"I will." I said.

Mark, Tyler, Amber, and I walked outside where we saw Vanity standing in the middle of the road. "You saved us the trouble of hunting you down." Mark said.

"Amber and Tyler stay behind us. Remember the plan, we are going to win this." I said to them.

"I'm surprised you guys think this will be enough to kill me. I'm a lot stronger than I was two months ago. Beast and Wizard, you two don't need to get involve I'm here to eradicate Medusa for her betrayal to our race." Vanity said.

"I'm sorry Vanity things aren't going to go well for you today." I said to her.

"Oh I think it will." She said with a cocky tone.

 **"** **Driver On!"**

 **"** **Driver on, please"**

"I've gotten stronger too Vanity. I will make you pay for what you did that day to DJ." Mark said.

I flipped the levers on my belt as I scanned my ring. "Transform!" I said.

 **"** **Flame…Dragon! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn!"**

"Transform!" Mark said.

 **"** **Go! Hyper! Hy-Hy-Hyper!"**

A red dragon erupted out of belt and flew around me as it smashed into my back revealing my neon red colored form. A yellow dust manifestation of Chimera erupted out of my belt and spun around me in circles and then collided with Mark revealing his blue and gold form. Amber and Tyler had a purple mist form around them as they transformed.

"So tell me Travis. Why are you fighting with Phantoms?" Vanity asked.

 **"** **Connect, please."**

I reached my hand into the spell circle and pulled back showing the Drago-Timer on my hand. "I'm not telling." I said to her. Vanity began to walk towards me as Mark ran out to fight her. He doesn't get halfway to her until I feel something burn on my back. The pain was excruciating but I couldn't even scream as my consciousness slowly began to fade. I fell to the ground as I looked back at Medusa who had a purple mist surrounding her hand. "What the hell did you do?" I said to her.

She just had a smile on her face as she and Phoenix walked out onto the battlefield and stood behind Vanity. "A set up?" I said as I felt something spreading across my body.

"Medusa! What did you guys do!?" Mark screamed out at them.

"I wouldn't be worried about what I did. I would be more worried about what Travis is going to be doing soon." She said as she pointed at me. Mark looked at me.

"We placed a spell on Travis. This spell will cause him to be under my control. As long as he remains in any of his forms I will have complete control over him. But this spell wasn't just to control Travis. Actually this entire month has not been what you guys were planning. This entire month I have been trying to find out what Travis's hope is so I can destroy it. After a month I have finally found it. What keeps Travis going are his friends. So if I have Travis kill all of you and then release him from my spell, he will despair and give into being Dragon." Vanity said.

"No way! You tricked us!?"I said.

"Yes I did. To be honest I tricked Medusa and Phoenix as well. Ever since my fight with you two months ago I've been planning for this day." Vanity said.

"Was me fighting Gremlin planned?" Medusa quickly asked.

"No that wasn't. But I played off of it though." Vanity said.

Medusa had an irritated sound come from her but in just a second Vanity took two feathers off of her wings and threw them behind her as they touched Medusa and Phoenix. The two became swarmed with feathers and were carried away from the battlefield. "Those two aren't needed here anymore. Now Mark what will you do? Will you be able to fight me and your close friend? I highly doubt that you will be able to win." Vanity said.

My vision was almost blacked out, "MARK! Grab everyone and go! I'm trying to fight the spell but I can't much longer! Just grab them and go! This spell can only work when I'm transformed. I don't have it in me to dispel the transformation so I will have to have my mana run ou-!" I then fell to the ground as my vision was completely faded.


	19. Sealed Magic

(Mark's Viewpoint)

"Travis! Fight it!" I screamed as he had a dark mist forming around certain parts of his body. He raised his arm up that held his gauntlet as the dark mist went inside the Drago-Timer. Travis was breathing heavily and then it came to a slow halt. The dial started going in its circle and Travis didn't need to hit the thumb. Once the dial got to the colored zones his other forms would appear. The dial also was going pretty fast.

 **"** **Water Dragon!"**

 **"** **Hurricane Dragon!"**

 **"** **Land Dragon!"**

"Combine." Travis said in a raspy voice.

The dragons appeared but didn't stay around. Travis then restarted the dial again and flipped the levers on his belt. A mixture of red, blue, green, and yellow mana started forming around Travis as he began growling. He flipped the levers on his belt and scanned the gauntlet.

 **"** **ALL DRAGON FORMATION! Please!"**

Each elemental dragon form then violently collided with his body as he began to get lifted up into the air and his entire body transformed. Everyone in the area looked at Travis's form as he was in Flame Dragon form with black wings out his back, a black tail, yellow dragon claws, and his gem faced looking more like a dragon's. I watched as he roared at the sky.

"Don't worry Travis, you may be fighting Dragon, but you won't be alone in this fight. Because I'm going to save you." I said to him. Travis then zoomed towards me with his right claw reeled back. I spun to his opposite side as he missed me by an inch. His tail got lifted up in the air and slammed on the ground as ice formed towards me and wrapped around my body. Travis then turned around and raised his claws to swipe at me. I held my Mirage Magnum and shot the ground causing the ice to have cracks form all around me. I then broke free quick enough to take my gun and do a hanging block at his swipe from one of his claws. I then took my right leg and wrapped it around his kneecap and pulled my foot back causing him to stumble and lose his balance. I then reeled my gun back and shot at him multiple times. I caused him to stumble backwards. I then commanded my gold tassels to wrap around his wrists and ankles as I lifted him up from the ground and then slammed him back into it. I tried my best to cause as much pain as I could that would knock him out but on the third time I did this Travis flapped his wings as he soared up into the air and took me with him. I couldn't hang on to him anymore at the speeds he was flying through the air. My tassels had been released as I was falling to the ground. Travis had his tail swipe across the air as icicles began zooming towards me. I took my gun and shot at the icicles as they shattered to pieces. I then back flipped and landed on the ground without any recoil.

"Okay so he's insanely strong and can cast powerful spells in this form. But his mind is that of an untamed beast. So he can't fully think clearly. If he did he would have tried to Rider Kick. Maybe I can make use of this info and find a way to beat him." I thought. Travis shot out more of his icicles and he then roared as yellow ripples hit the ice causing it to move faster. I quickly dodged the ice as I fired more of my bullets at him. Travis came soaring at a very fast rate where he slashed me with his claws. I fell onto the ground and he hovered over me as he reeled back his arm and right before he would have stabbed me bullets hit him in the shoulder and he looked up to see Manuela running into the battlefield. Travis then soared towards her. I quickly got up as I watched her put the gun in sword mode. Travis went to swipe at her but she ducked under his attacking arm and raised the blade up and then down in a vertical line hitting him in his side.

"Mark! I need you to distract him!" She said to me.

"Okay I got it!" I responded back.

I then ran towards him as his tail hit the ground and caused ice to emerge out of his tail. The ice were like chunks as they began shooting towards me. I would run forward with my gun in the air and shoot at the rocks. Manuela began slashing at him. Travis was doing his best not to fight with his right arm knowing full well that was his defeat last time. I finally got up behind Travis as I roundhouse kicked him in the back causing him to fall forward to Manuela who was ready to slash him. We both heard something zoom through the air as I heard Manuela scream. I couldn't see what was going on because of Travis's body was in the way. But I then got a good look as Travis regained his stance and had his tail rise up and hit me in my side. I got sent flying until I rolled over on the ground. I came to a halt as I tried to ignore the pain in my side. I looked up to see Manuela fall to her knees while dropping the sword. She ripped something out the side of her ribs and dropped it on the ground. It was a small blade with a feather like handle. Manuela had blood flowing down the side of her body and our friends were screaming out her name. Travis just stood there slowly moving towards her. He lifted his tail up and turned his body slightly diagonal as the tail started moving all over the place.

"No. Travis, stop. You're going to kill her." I called out to him. I had seen Robin come to the battlefield with her gun raised.

"Travis don't! You're going to kill Manuela! You need to snap out of it!" Robin screamed with a fearful look on her face.

"Travis! That's your girlfriend! You gotta snap out of it!" Karina screamed out.

Manuela looked up at Travis, "Please Travis. You need to break free. I'm right here for you. You don't have to fight alone anymore." She said to him. Vanity then spoke up.

"Kill her Dragon! After you're done you will be one step closer to being free! You will no longer have to have Travis control you anymore!" Vanity said.

"Travis do you really want to kill the girl you loved?!" Shawn said running out of the house. He ran into the battlefield with a ring that he must've made.

"What a nuisance you're friends are." Vanity said. She plucked a feather out of her and shot it at Shawn. The feather hit his leg causing him to fall onto the ground and the ring went flying. I got up trying to fight back the pain. But in a flash Vanity was right behind me as she put her hand on the back of my neck and lifted me up in the air.

"You've guys lost. There won't be any more second chances." She said. A purple mist wrapped itself around me as sparks started shooting off of my form and my mana was getting drained from my body. I reverted back to my human form. Vanity then violently threw me on the ground as she stepped on my chest. "You're first mistake was trusting Phantoms to have some kind of common cause. Through Medusa and Phoenix I was able to keep an eye on you guys. I know exactly what you guys were planning on doing if Travis went into All Dragon. There is nothing you can do but watch as your friend's perish one by one. Once you and Travis are removed from this picture there won't be anyone who can stop Phantoms." Vanity said to me.

I looked over at Manuela as Travis raised his tail and spun around hitting her with the back of his tail. Manuela got sent flying until she hit the side of the house. The back of her head hit against one of the glass windows. Her body fell onto the ground and I screamed but for once I couldn't even hear my own voice. I looked at Vanity as she commanded Travis to finish the job. Travis raised his claws up in the air as balls of green mana began forming above them. The balls kept getting bigger.

Robin fired her guns providing back up as Karina ran to pick up Manuela. Robin made her way to Shawn as she pulled out the blade from his leg. The balls of green mana reached their peak and Travis combined the two as he shot them out like a stream.

"NOOOOOOO!" I screamed as my friends were about to get blown away.

I saw someone emerge out of flash of light and it was Makoto Fueki.

 **"** **Barrier, now!"**

Makoto raised her hand as a purple circle formed that protected her and everyone else. "You can have this back." Makoto said as the circle absorbed the attack and shot it back out. A green stream zoomed back at Travis who didn't have a chance to react. He ended up taking the hit causing a giant explosion around him. Travis began to kneel to the ground.

"Makoto! What are you doing here?! You know that Travis can despair if his friends die! So why are you protecting them?!" Vanity barked.

"Travis is needed for the Holy Eclipse ritual. I can't get the mana he possesses if he's a Phantom. You know this better than anyone. I've specifically told you that Travis is to keep from despairing. I've worked for far too long to have things go to waste because you decided to act on your own Vanity. Let's not forget who brought you back to life. You will listen to me and you will follow me." She said to her.

"What if I refuse? What if I don't like your plan?" Vanity questioned.

Makoto slid a ring on her finger and held it over her belt.

 **"** **Driver on, now."**

"I guess you'll just have to die by my hands." She said with a frown on her face.

Makoto hit the sides of her belt as she raised her hand up and slid an orange gemstone with its faceguard down. "Transform."

(Makoto's Viewpoint)

 **"** **Change, now."**

An orange spell circle appeared to the right of me as it moved through showing my white hooded form. I reached my hand out, "Appear! Hamel Cane!" Orange mana formed in my hands as a cane like weapon with a short blade attached at the end appeared. "It seems like you're plan was made for controlling Travis and making him despair. So I will release him from your spell." I said to Vanity.

I faced Travis as he got up off the ground, "Dragon. You will not be able to beat me. I, Wiseman was one of Merlin's Successors. You were just his pet. You're not going to win against me so don't even try. I command you to release your host this instant." I said to him.

Travis began growling like a beast, "I would love to see you try to make me. I kinda love this body. So you don't get to decide what I do. Last I checked you were not our master." He said back to me. Vanity then appeared next to Travis.

"If you're going to be intent on stopping me I will fight you too." She said to me.

I slipped on a spell ring and hit the sides of my belt, "So be it then." I challenged. Travis and Vanity ran towards me. Vanity shot out a barrage of feathers at me as I placed my ring over my singing belt.

 **"** **Explosion, now!"**

Multiple purple spell circles appeared around me as the explosions were made destroying all of the feathers without any harm coming to me. Travis came in with a strike from his claws. I dodge under and sliced at his stomach with my cane. I then kicked him in the side as I spun around again and jumped kicked Vanity in the jaw. I spun my cane around and thrusted it behind me while still facing Vanity causing Travis to step back before getting hit. I then raised my spell hand and open palmed Vanity. A purple spell circle appeared on her shoulder and another explosion was made sending her to stumble backwards. I then turned around to see Travis getting ready to unleash a fire attack. I took the Barrier Ring from my chain and placed it in one of the four empty slots on my Hamel Cane.

 **"** **Barrier!"**

I said as I slammed the blade side into the ground. The fire came towards me and swarmed around me like a tornado but my spell was keeping me protected from the attack. I took my weapon out of the ground and grabbed the end of the weapon as I spun around in a circle striking not only Travis who had gotten close, but Vanity as well. Travis and Vanity went into a super speed like state as they zoomed all over the battlefield trying to attack my blind spot. I thrusted my cane to the side hitting one of Vanity's wings and then jumped up into the air as my right foot basked in a purple mist that I brought down on Travis's head underneath me. I then lifted my hands in front of me as a purple spell circle and a rune letter appeared over my fists.

Travis was standing right next to me as I reached out and grabbed his claws and pulled him towards me where I punched him in the face. A purple spell circle was left where my fist connected and then I spun around and did a couple of quick jabs onto Vanity's stomach and then one in her opposite side of where I placed my Explosion Spell from earlier. When I was done I bent my body down low and kicked her legs while moving in a circle causing her to fall onto the ground. I then slid the Explosion Ring off and yanked my Hamel Cane out of her wing. I placed the ring into the slot underneath Barrier.

 **"** **Explosion!"**

I said. Once I turned the ring into the cane the purple spell circles that were on my enemies where I hit them lit up and exploded. Travis kneeled to the ground. I grabbed another spell ring out of my chain and slid it in the third slot of my cane.

 **"** **Dupe!"**

I said. I threw the cane up into the air as it split into dozens of weapons that rained down onto Travis and Vanity. Once that was done I grabbed another ring from my holster and flipped my levers.

 **"** **Kick Strike! Now!"**

I back flipped into the air and came soaring straight down with my arms stretched out from my side. I hit one of my copied weapons and the moment I did a giant purple spell circle appeared underneath them and Travis, I flipped backwards and snapped my fingers. An explosion was made as the copied weapons disappeared and Travis was all lying down on the ground. I walked over to him as I placed my hand on his back where a purple spell circle was placed and the moment I touched it the spell circle faded away. I then watched as he reverted back to his human form. I looked over at Vanity who was pinned to the ground by my weapons. I snapped my fingers as the weapons vanished and I reverted back to my human form.

"I've won." I said to Vanity.

"No this isn't possible!" Vanity said as she tried to stand up.

I looked over at Travis's friends as they were holding Manuela trying to wake her up. "I think I have found my Aqua." I said as I started walking towards them.

I felt someone grab my ankles as I looked down to see Travis at my feet. "Leave…Her…Alone…" He said weakly.

"Do you want to see what I did to Maria and DJ? How they are still alive? I'll show you." I said to him. I placed both my hands up as a black spell circle formed in front of my left hand and an orange in my right. I began to speak a language long forgotten as I shot out the two spells that attached themselves to Manuela. The spells then levitated her body up and brought it to me.

I placed my hand on her head and my other hand on her feet as she laid sideways in the air. I took my hand above her head and moved it counter-clockwise, I then took my other hand and moved it clockwise as a blue spell circle with the rune like letter A formed in the middle.

I kept speaking a lot of magical talk as the spell circle started seeping into Manuela's skin. Her chest began to grow a bright blue color and when the entire spell circle vanished I watched as Manuela's eyes shot out a bright blue light. Her blood started going back into her body and you could hear her bones repairing themselves from Travis's attack. When she finished healing a set of two rings in a blue like orb emerged out of her heart. I then had her stand on her feet in front of me as she began to look like a mindless doll. I grabbed her hands and slid the rings on the appropriate fingers. Once I did that her body began to illuminate as she if she had gotten brought back to life again. I took my finger and placed a spell circle on her forehead that seeped into her skin.

"From here on your name will be Aqua. Masked Rider Aqua. You will obey me and only me." I said to her. She nodded her head. After she nodded her head a white stream that was Manuela's soul left her body and went into my belt. I looked down at Travis who was not happy.

"What? I just saved your lover's life after you just busted the back of her head with your attack." I said to him.

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything to her!" He said to me.

I broke my feet free from him as I walked over and grabbed Manuela's hand. Travis fought to stand up as he raised his gauntlet in front of his face. "I'm taking her back! No matter the cost." He said. I then saw Vanity zoom right behind him as she grabbed him by the back of his neck and lift him up into the air.

"What do you think you're doing Vanity?!" I said as I tried to rush to have her break Travis free.

Vanity then turned into a black ball as she entered into Travis's back. Travis was still hovering in the air as he was screaming in pain. Suddenly his eyes turned black as he looked at me but spoke in Vanity's voice.

"I don't have the strength to fully control Travis. But if I can't have Travis then nobody will!" She said.

A black spell circle appeared on Travis's chest as he began screaming in pain. I then saw the black ball emerge out of his chest as Vanity held a deep red colored gemstone chunk in her hand. "What the hell did you just do?!" I said as I ran to grab the stone. Vanity jumped back and far enough to where I couldn't reach her.

"Dragon!" Travis screamed as he rolled onto his side. I looked down as I feared for the worse. Travis's belt reverted back to a black hand and Travis tried turning his belt on with the Driver On ring, but nothing was happening.

"You stole his magic!?" I said shocked.

Vanity then dropped the stone on the ground. "I did more than just take his mana. I sealed him from using mana from Dragon. Dragon still resides in the belt but Travis will never be able to use magic ever again. This stone chunk is only a fragment of the mana I stole from him. But because of how weak I am I wasn't able to take much." She said.

"I need that stone to get Travis's mana unsealed." I thought as I tried to move. But in a second Vanity raised her fist and hit the chunk shattering it too pieces.

"Now that this stone is gone, you won't ever be able to restore and break the seal on your mana. I hope you enjoy being useless." Vanity said. She then vanished as a bunch of feathers took her away.

"That bitch!" I said as I grabbed Manuela's wrist.

"Leave…Her…Here!" Travis said as she tried to stand up but fell onto the ground in pain.

"I don't have time to play around with you anymore. Rejoice Travis. You're no longer a threat to me." I said to him.

 **"** **Teleport, now."**

A flash of light appeared around us and I heard Travis scream Manuela's name as we disappeared.


	20. Missing Piece

(Karina's Viewpoint)

A day has gone by since we all lost Manuela, and Travis's powers were sealed. Travis was in immense pain from having his magic sealed. It took him six hours of being in severe pain until he collapsed from it all. All of us would take turns on checking up on him in his room. But every time for the past 12 hours when we would check on him, he would just be asleep. He has yet to wake up from the events. I checked on him this morning and I found him holding onto a pillow that he had bought for Manuela as a New Year's Eve gift. You could see some stains on it that could only get there from something wet touching it.

It wasn't my turn to check on him but I was greatly worried about him. I walked up to his door and knocked on it gently. "Bro, are you awake yet?" I said as I turned the door handle and slowly opened it. I saw Travis still lying on his bed with his back turned to me. He was slowly breathing and when I went to check on him his eyes were still closed. He was holding onto the pillow again. This time I could tell getting a better look at his face that he's been crying. I grabbed the napkins on the nightstand we left for him as I started wiping his tears.

"I hope you can wake up soon from this." I said to him. I heard the door swing open more as I turned around and saw Mark.

"Oh hey I thought it was my turn to check on him." He said to me.

"It is. I'm just worried about him. He hasn't let go of that pillow." I said to Mark.

"It's probably going to be a while before he wakes up. He's lost his mana which is part of our life energy. So right now his body is trying to recover. Plus all that pain he was in might've pushed his body past its limits." Mark said as stood looking over Travis.

A tear ran down my face when I heard the news. "Am I going to die then?" I said under my breath.

"Did you say something Karina?" Mark said facing me.

"No I'm fine." I lied back.

"Shawn is making a quick recovery from the wounds. The attack Vanity didn't hit anything vital. He should be getting discharged from the hospital today. Robin is going to pick him up. He will receive antibiotics, a crutch, and a cast he will have to keep on for about a week. Other than that he will be okay." Mark said to me.

"How's everyone handling with Manuela?" I said but had a hard time saying the name.

"Well…There's a lot to process. She should've died with that blow to her head. But somehow Makoto was able to not only heal her, but control her. Travis seems to know something about what had happened. Maybe we can have him tell us after he wakes up." He said to me.

I walked over to Travis's nightstand and grabbed a photo of him that DJ took last year. Travis had used the Dress Up ring for Halloween and DJ took a picture of it. Travis was dressed up like butler. He was wearing this black expensive looking suit with a white underneath shirt and a red tie on it. His hair was greatly combed back with a sleek shine. I think it was one of my favorite photos of him especially since it was a moment where he was most happy because of how much fun he had that night tricking people with Mark.

Travis would go up to people around the town as a butler with a gold plate and a gold lid over it. Mark was dressed up like a horrific beast and would hide in the bushes and wait for Travis's signal. Travis's signal would be he opened the lid after saying, "I have a nice treat for you today guests." The people would see a finger and Travis would say, "This is the finger of my last victim and now I need a new one." Mark would then rush from behind his hiding spot and scare the people away. None of us thought it would work but Robin had gotten a call for a "disrupting the peace" and the two had to stop their tricking around the town. Mark had installed a camera in his mask so when the two came back they would show us how much the people would react. It was a funny and amazing night.

I took the photo out of the frame as held it in my hand. "I'm going to keep this photo. It helps a bit with me trying to stay calm." I told Mark.

"Believe me. A lot of us could use that right now." He said. We both walked out of the room together as we gently closed the door.

(Robin's Viewpoint)

I was signing the release papers for Shawn as he held his Engage Ring in his hands. Instead of his energetic self, he was in a deep somber state. He didn't even talk to anyone when I walked through the door, even me. He waved but did so with a frown on his face. The nurses helped him into a wheelchair and he just stared at the floor. We rolled him to my van and I helped him get out of the chair. I closed the door and walked around the front of my van and got into the driver's side. I started the ignition and before I pulled out of the parking spot I looked over at Shawn sliding his Engage Ring off. He was gripping it hard in his hand and I knew he might break it. I quickly grabbed his wrist and pulled it towards me.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" I said to him as I stopped him from adding any more pressure. He opened his palm slowly as the ring fell to the floor. "This isn't like you Shawn! What is wrong?" I said sternly.

"It doesn't matter anymore." He said irritated.

"What do you mea-?" I said but got cut off.

"IT'S OVER! There is not thing we can do now! Vanity has won, the Phantoms have won! What's the point in resisting anymore?! All of our hard work is gone now that Travis's mana has been sealed. Mark wasn't strong enough to fight All Dragon so how can he beat Vanity? Without Travis we can't keep protecting people's hopes! We got played for fools by those despicable pieces of flesh! We played right into our enemy's hands! Can't you see? Everything we do has now become all for noth-."

I slapped Shawn across the face to get him to stop rambling. "Knock it the hell off! Do you know what you're saying?! You think we can just give up because of all of this?" I snapped at him.

"I can't make Mark stronger. My rings only work with the Wizard Driver, not the Beast Driver. I'm back to being useless. I'm back to being a normal person. I can't be Travis's student if I can't do anything like make rings. When DJ sacrificed his life for us he bestowed his ability to make rings to me. Do you know how much that made me feel? Do you know how much I felt like I had a purpose for this team of ours? I could actually do something rather than being more of a support for Travis. I could actually call myself a student. A torch was passed down to me when we lost DJ. But after what I saw yesterday I had my eyes pried open and now I realize I'm back to being nothing." Shawn said as tears ran down his face.

I put my hand on his shoulder, "Shawn you're a lot more than nothing. All of us see that. You started off from something small and have made great strides in the past year to become who you are today. All of us have." I then grabbed the ring off the floor and slid it on his finger. "Travis gave us hope. He saved our lives so we can keep living. Also remember when we thought all was lost? Remember when we almost became Phantoms? Travis came in at the last second and saved us. He came in and gave us the strength to keep fighting. When I thought I was going to lose my mother to Arachnid and began to break down into my despair, I held on to the words Travis told me as he saved us. I'm betting he did the same for you." I said to him.

Shawn looked at his ring, "He did. I was breaking rapidly and when he showed up to fight off Hellhound, I held onto my life a little bit longer. Before he showed up I thought I was just someone people replace after a while. I didn't think anyone would ever care about me. If you were to find me getting attacked by people nobody would do a thing. That's what played through my mind when Hellhound made a fool out of me. I already knew at that point nobody would show up for me because nobody cared. But then I saw Travis fight Hellhound and I was amazed. I wasn't sure why he was going so far for me. But when he saved me, he gave me a home to call my own. After that he gave me friends. Friends that I would gladly give my life up for; you guys became irreplaceable to me." He said drying his tears.

"Don't you think it's time we were there for Travis? He's always there for us when we hit rock bottom, don't you think it's time we all returned that back to him?" I asked.

"Yeah. He needs it now more than ever." Shawn said getting a smile back.

I began backing up as we started pulling out of the parking lot and drove towards Bamboo Garden. "We're going to pick up some lunch. If Travis wakes up he's probably going to be hungry." I said with a confident smile. "I just hope Travis can break through this. I don't know what we can do, but I know that I'm not going to give up on him. He didn't give up on us in our darkest hour. Right now he needs his friends" I thought as I began picking up speed.

(Mark's Viewpoint)

I walked out of Travis's room as I went out to my tent out in the cold. It was bright and sunny day but the temperature was 39 degrees. I was wearing a yellow t-shirt with a red fur vest. I had black sweats on as I entered my tent. I picked up a photo of Travis that I kept with me since I was a kid of us at my birthday party. We had turned my party into a food fight. I chuckled as I looked at the photo of young Travis with drenched hair from the pop I poured on him and the pieces of frosting from the cake he hit me with. We both had our thumbs up to the camera with our arms over the other's shoulder. "Our lives were bad being in that neighborhood. The gang would always pick on you and beat you down. But you still kept smiling. You still found a way to not let it get to you. You just were so strong at dealing with the abuse. It was something I could never do." I said as tear ran down my face. I wiped my face with my arm as I looked at the side of my tent that faced the house.

"I'm not going to let these guys down. Even if you can't transform again, I will keep everyone safe. I will continue on where you left off. I will carry the torch until my last breath. Because that's what you have consistently been doing this whole year haven't you?" I said staring at the house. I spent the next few hours working on how I would handle Vanity. I started thinking about how her fighting style is and what weakness's she would have.

(Travis's Viewpoint)

-Next Day-

My eyes snapped open as I saw that I was holding the pillow that belonged to Manuela as New Year's Eve gift. The hole in my heart got a bit bigger. I put the pillow up against the wall as I rolled over and tried to stand up. My legs were greatly shaking and the moment I put my second foot down I fell to the ground hard. "Damn!" I said as I tried to stand up. I placed my hands flat on the floor and as I tried to push myself up I noticed my arms were also shaking. I fell back to the floor again. "Why do I feel so weak? What's wrong with me?" I said trying again but only fell. I heard a voice from outside my room.

"Travis?!" The voice sounded like Karina. She busted through the door as she saw me struggling to get off the floor.

"I could use some help I guess. I can't stand; my body is greatly shaking for some reason." I said to her. She helped lift me off the floor as I put one arm around her. She helped support me as I tried to slowly walk to my bedroom door.

"Bro. How are you feeling?" She asked in a somber tone.

"Other than shaking I'm somehow starving. I think I need to eat to restore my mana." I said to her.

"You don't…" Karina said but then stopped herself. I looked at her worried about what she was saying.

"What?" I asked confused.

Karina then turned my body around as she had me walk back to my bed and had me sit down. I felt a great emotional shift surrounding me. Karina was looking at me as the areas around her mouth started moving around like she was holding back her tears. Her eyes became half shut as she started twirling her index fingers around each other.

"Karina what's wrong? You're making me worry." I said to her calmly.

Karina looked at the floor next to her as tears began running down her face. She tried to speak but closed her mouth quickly. I reached out for her hands as I grabbed them. "Karina you have to tell me what's wrong. Don't leave me in the dark please. You know I hate that. Tell me what's wrong." I said to her. She opened her mouth a bit and then bit her lip. She then had a few second pauses as the tears wouldn't stop rolling down her cheeks.

"You're…M-ma-mana is g-g-gone…I'm s-s-sorry…" She said having a hard time speaking. She then kneeled to the ground as she placed her hands on her face and broke down. She was sobbing loudly but when I heard the news I couldn't register it.

"…That can't be possible…" I said as I felt something shatter to pieces inside of me.

I just couldn't think of how I could have lost my mana. I looked around as I could feel something missing. "Where's Manuela? My memories are a bit hazy from what happened." I said to her not thinking straight. Karina looked at me as she began shaking like crazy. She then turned around and rushed out the room. When she swung the door open she saw Mark who had his eyes wide open at me.

He walked inside the room as he kneeled in front of me as tears ran down my face. "What happened…Mark please tell me…" I said knowing that I wasn't ready for the answer.

"Manuela is on Makoto's side now." Mark said in a low tone.

I slowly stood up as I walked over to a table in the room that had a vase with flowers in it. I just stared at it. "How?" I said depressed.

"If Makoto didn't do what she did, you would've killed Manuela. You attacked her while in All-Dragon." Mark said in a low tone.

Anger built up inside of me as I grabbed the vase, yelled and threw it at the wall in front of me. Memories of what happened began flooding my mind as I saw Manuela get stabbed in the ribs by Vanity's attack…And me whipping my tail at her causing her to get sent flying at the house. I fell to the ground screaming out the pain in my chest as more of the memories of what Makoto did before I fell unconscious.

The pain was overwhelming and then I had another memory flash through my mind. It was the memory of when Makoto came to me as White Wizard and presented me the rings after fighting Minotaur. The words echoed throughout my mind.

 _"_ _Twice every week you must have her scan that ring over your belt and give her some of your mana. As long as you do this she will not die, she will live on as long as you take care of her. She isn't a Gate anymore, but you mustn't let the Phantoms get ahold of her. She will be a great power source for them so stay with her at all times."_

"Karina is going to die…" I said as I was breathing heavily.

"What do you mean Karina is going to die?" Mark said confused.

"If my mana is gone, and I can't feed Karina my mana. Then she will die. She needs my mana to live." I said to Mark.

Mark stayed silent but I could hear him sniffling as I slowly turned around and saw tears running down his face as well.

"I'm tired of it all." He said.

"Mark?" I said worried.

"Why am I always losing the people who are precious around me? I've lost Manuela, Klarissa, my parents, and now I'm going to lose Karina. How much longer do I have to keep suffering?" Mark said.

I walked over to him as I gave him a hug and he broke down even more. I wanted to break down; I wanted to let this pain wash over me. I wanted to wake up from the nightmare I was in. But I couldn't, I wanted to be there for Mark. I didn't want him to have to suffer like me.

"I don't know what I'm going to do Mark. But I'm going to figure out something. I promise you." I said to him drying up my tears. We then heard people running up the stairs. Robin and Shawn burst into the room.

"Hey was Karina just up here?!" Robin asked frantically.

"She just left about fifteen minutes ago. Why?" I responded.

"Because she's nowhere to be found in the house and her shoes aren't at the door!" Shawn said.

Mark and I quickly got up as all four of us ran to the living room. We re-searched the house calling out for her and Mark went to go check outside only to find footprints leading out to the Machine Winger, and the motor bike was also gone. The roads were cleared so we wouldn't have been able to find out where she would've drove off too.

"Mark I need you to fly off and find her! Look in the downtown area! Robin! You and Shawn look on the northern end of town. I'm going to grab DJ's bicycle he has in the basement and I'm going to look in this area. If you find her text the others and we'll all meet up at that place." I said to them.

Mark transformed and flew out towards the downtown and the other two dispersed. I ran back into the house as I made my way to the door that led to the basement. I grabbed the bike and began walking out the door with it until I stopped and thought of something.

"Can you be there?" I thought.

Back when it was warmer out. Karina and I would go across this private property and into a little thicket that would lead us to a beach like scene with rocks instead of sand. It was over by the bike trail and a trailer park. Once you get through the little forest area you would find it. There is a giant pond that is pretty deep with a stone wall at the end of the pond. A tube would stick out of the wall which is how the water gets into this area. It was a place that was ours and that no one else knew about. We would go here together whenever we were down. After finding out about Amber being Medusa, Karina and I would come here a lot. Sometimes we would just watch the water ripples, listening to the little nature there was, or skip rocks. One time I walked out onto the stones that poked out of the water's surface that led about half the way across the big pond. I almost fell into the water at that point.

I finally made my way to the entrance of the Gypsy Lane trailer parks. I biked to the far left back of the area where I locked the bike up and ran across the small field until I got up to the barbed wired fence. I followed the fence down until I saw a compost pile of bark, branches, and wood logs. I climbed them up as I hopped over the fence. I entered the little forest as I made my way through them following the arrow marks Karina and I put on the trees to guide our way. I then saw Karina sitting on the ground tossing stones into the green colored water. There were patches of ice in random areas.

"We used to skip rocks out here all the time." Karina said with her back to me. I slowly walked up behind her.

"Yea we did." I said to her.

"You've died before. What did it feel like? Was it peaceful?" She asked depressed.

"I can't remember. I was brought straight back to life shortly after." I said to her. Karina began crying.

"I'm scared Travis…I don't want to die…" She said.

I kneeled behind her as I placed my arms around her. She started bursting into more tears.

"I want to keep living!" She said through her crying.

"I know." I said at a loss for words.

"Was I worth being around? Will you and the others remember me?" She said.

"You were amazing. I don't think anyone can eat as many plates of food as you did." I said with a chuckle.

"Hahahaha. Yeah that's true." She said holding my arms tightly.

"I promise you I will find a way to get my mana back. I'm going to make Vanity pay." I said to her.

"Bro. Will you let me do one thing before I die? I can tell inside myself that I don't have much mana left to live." She said to me. She dried up her face.

"Yeah I can." I said to her.

She turned around and kissed me on the lips. She then moved her head back. I was greatly shocked.

"What was that…?" I asked surprised.

"Before Manuela and Amber, I fell in love with you. I didn't say anything because I was scared of being rejected. I was going to try after Amber but you kept having eyes for Manuela and I didn't want to get in the way. I talked to Manuela about this prior to her concert last month. I've wanted to tell you but I couldn't find the motivation to do so. I'm doing it now because I won't get another chance. I do love you Travis." She said to me. I hugged her as more tears ran down my face.

"I'm going to miss you so much." I said crying.

I looked at her hands that started to fade a bit. You could almost see through her hand. "Don't worry. If I pass on I will watch over you." She said to me. "I'll watch over everyone." She cried. She then reached into her pocket and pulled out a spell ring I haven't seen before.

"What's this?" I asked her.

"Shawn had created this ring in hopes it would help with dealing with you in All Dragon. But Shawn was attacked by Vanity and the ring got thrown from his hand. I want you to have it. Maybe it will be useful when you get your mana back." She said putting the ring in my pocket. We then heard a noise from behind us.

I looked behind to see Vanity in her human form slowly walking towards us.

"Isn't this heartwarming. I do love a good soap opera drama. But I'm afraid you guys are going to have to die here and now. Except for you Karina, you contain power that I want." She said to her. I quickly got in front of Karina in a protective stance.

"You're not going to lay hand on her!" I said defensively.

"You don't get to talk like that with no power to back that up boy." She said as she transformed. She shot out a purple wave that coursed right through us. Karina became extremely terrified but I remained still with nothing but anger in my heart.

"I'll protect her. Even if it costs me my life." I said to her. Vanity had given off a big laugh as she got up in my face.

"EXCITING!" She said as she went to back fist me.

I raised my right arm to block the attack and wrap my arm around her wrist. I then turned to the side locking her arm as I put my palm on her elbow and pushed. You could hear her tendons snapping that she grunted in pain over. But then she raised her foot and stomped on mine causing me to let go of her grip as she open palmed my chest hard enough to not only cause me to stumble back but making my entire body go numb. I stood motionless from her attack as my body went into a brief shock. Once I was able to get control over myself, Vanity slapped me across the left side of my face and then my right. She then raised her foot and kicked me in the stomach as I fell on my back. Blood was pouring out of my mouth and my body extremely sore.

"Tell me something Travis. How is it that you were able to not be affected by my spell? How come you aren't cowering in fear like her? What magic are do you have that overpowers mine?" She questioned me. I began fighting back the pain as I stumbled to get up. I got back to standing trying to figure out how to take her down.

"I wish I knew. All I know is that I'm not losing another person I care about to you Phantoms. I'm sick of losing the people I care about!" I roared. I ran at her as two of her feathers shot out of her wings and into my shoulders. Once they did I felt like my entire body became extremely heavy. "This feels like she's controlling gravity!? My body is being forced to the ground." I thought as I fell to the ground without being able to fight back against the pressure that was placed on me.

"You're bravery and courage to fight, you're determination to keep the people you love safe, is what gives you strength. But it's not strong enough to overpower me." She said as she plucked one of her wings out and it turned into a sword.

"Stay…Away…From her!" I screamed as I tried to fight back against her spell.

"In order to extract the Philospher's Stone from your body I have to kill the host. As incomplete as it is, the stone you've been carrying will be enough to strike down Wiseman. I will take her place and I will rule over the Phantoms. Rejoice now Karina, after I end your life you won't ever have to deal with the pain of living anymore. All I want you to do is to give into your despair and release the Stone." She said to her. Karina stared at her and then looked down at me. She raised her hand and waved goodbye at me just like she always has whenever we parted ways.

I finally found the strength to break free from the spell as I got up and began running towards Vanity. Vanity quickly turned the sword around and thrusted backwards piercing me in the ribs.

"I'm done with you Travis. If left alive any longer you may prove to unseal your mana. You're a magician of many surprises and I can see why Wiseman favors you. But I'm afraid this is the end of the line. Thanks so much for making your last moments…Exciting!" She said in a happy tone. She ripped the blade out of my chest as she grabbed my throat and flew up into the air. I was trying my best to stop her from choking me out but I was losing a lot of blood quickly.

"I can't keep fighting anymore…" I thought to myself.

We got to a certain height from the ground as I started losing consciousness from the blood loss. Vanity released her grip on me as I began to fall. While falling I reached in my pocket and grabbed the ring that Karina had given me.

"God…Please watch over my friends…Please help them be safe…" I said as my body hit the water and I began to sink deeper into the cold and dark environment.

(Vanity's Viewpoint)

I landed on the ground after Travis fell into the water. "Let's see how well you can swim when you have three opened wounds in your body and the water is below freezing." I said looking at the ripples form from his splash. I turned around and faced Karina. You could tell that she had finally broke from the loss of her friend. I raised the sword and blood shook the blade. I then placed the sword at her neck. Karina then stared at me with defeat in her eyes.

"You humans are all the same. You are all too weak to try and live, so to help you with that you hold onto the one thing that keeps you alive. That thing becomes your hope. You'll do anything to protect it and cherish it, but when it's gone you guys start to question if life is worth living. Hope is just you insects living on a thin strand of string. Not a single one of you in this wretched world actually have pure strength like us Phantoms. What separates us from you is that we don't believe in relying on others. Our strength is our very own without any reliance on anyone or anything else." I lectured. Karina then reached out and placed her hand on my blade.

"It must be pretty lonely then, to not have the ability to rely on others and have bonds with other people. We humans might be weak, but when we have a reason to live our true strength comes out." She said to me depressed.

"How do you figure?" I asked her.

"You just saw Travis break through your gravitation spell. He did that in order to protect me as a final effort. He overcame your fear spell you cast onto everyone because he wanted to protect me." She said to me.

I turned the blade around as it cut her skin causing blood to run around her hand. I lifted the blade to my side.

"Even if he was able to do that, that doesn't go for everyone. I would love to see one of your friends try and save you right now and try to present the same resolve Travis had. I could tell you that not a single one of them would. So your theory has its flaws. Flaws that is very common in the world." I said to her. Karina then stared deep into my eyes.

"I wait for the day you die." She said to me.

I raised my blade, "I'm not going to die sweetheart. So you'll just have to keep waiting for an eternity." I said as the sword came swinging towards her.

 **"** **Alakazam, please!"**

I quickly brought my attack to a halt as I heard this noise. A blue spell circle appeared underneath Karina as the water from the pond rapidly rushed and formed a tornado of water around her. I sliced at the wall as my blade just barely cut an inch deep into it.

"What is this?!" I screamed trying to force the blade through the water but made no progress. The swirling water began to take a more human size form and then made the outlines of someone. My eyes widened as I saw Travis forming from the water. I got a good look at his eyes. They were no longer brown, but instead were silver, like diamonds and crystals. They had this rippling effect in them as the water tornado quickly became a giant ball. The ball shot at me as it sent me flying away from Karina. I got up to see Travis with his eyes returning to normal. His wounds I had inflicted on him were gone and he was holding out his hand to me with his cross necklace in between his fingers.

"You say you're not going to die huh? Want to make a bet on that?" Travis said with a smile.

"How the hell did you survive? What's more important is how are you able to cast that strong spell without access to your mana?!" I said furiously.

"Oh _Dragon's_ mana is still sealed. What you just got a taste of is my OWN power." He said. I only scowled at his response.

"There is no possible way that a human can create their own mana! Unless…." I then looked at Karina. "You did something! I'll kill you!" I said as I fired out my feathers. Travis grabbed a big rock at his feet and bashed the feathers away and then dropped the rock. He then held his hand out to me with the cross necklace that he wears in between his fingers.

"This magician has one more magic trick up his sleeve. Watch closely now." He said. He enclosed the necklace into a fist and then turned his hand around. He opened his hand back up to reveal a new ring. One that was bigger than any one he had. It was a ring with a new mask that was a very light blue almost like diamonds with a silver face guard attached to the mask and the base of the ring was outline with the front face of it.

"How did you form your own ring?!" I questioned confused.

"I'm not obligated to tell you anything." He said to me. He slid on a ring and placed it over his belt.

" **Driver on, please."**

There is no way that you were able to get your mana back! Even if you could unseal it, the amount I took would make you less powerful than you were before." I said to him.

He then raised his new ring and placed it on his finger. "Do you ever shut up?" He said to me.

I quickly took flight as I held my blade up soaring straight at him. "I'll kill you for good this time! I'll see it to myself!" I roared. He then put the ring over the belt.

 **"** **Infinity!"**

A silver spell circle formed around him as my attack was stopped.

"What kind of magic is this?!" I said enraged.

Travis looked at me dead in the in eyes as his belt just kept saying Infinity over and over again.

"My own." He said. He then removed the ring from the belt.

 **"** **Infinity, please! Fire-Water-Wind-Earth! Burn-Bubble-Blow-Rumble!"**

A dragon made of diamonds erupted out of Travis's belt as the one silver spell circle became a double spell circle.

"A double transformation spell circle?!" I said in awe.

The circle around Travis put up a white barrier around him as the dragon began roaring and flying in circles around him. Travis stretched his arms out as he looked up into the sky with his back slightly hunched back.

"TRANSFORM!" He said calling out to the dragon in the air.

The dragon then dove right into him head on as the spell circle moved upwards from the ground. Shining glitter and a wave of the white mana that surrounded Travis blasted outwards as I got a look at his new form.

His head was just like his transformation ring. There was a circular exposed part on top as he then had this chest armor that was made of diamonds that covered to his mid chest area and then branched out to his shoulders. The collar of it was a few inches away from his neck. He had his black under suit with a diamond square piece above his belt. His cape was bright shining silver with some diamonds gracefully attached to his sides. He had silver arm gauntlets over his hands that extended up to his elbows. His kneecaps were covered in diamond as well as his ankles.

"This is incredible." I thought to myself as Travis lowered his head and had his hand lifted up so I can see his new transformation ring.

"I am the final hope." He said to me.

* * *

Next Time on Masked Rider Wizard:

"How are you able to be this strong?!"

"I will end your reign."

 **"High Touch!"**

"With Travis back in power I will create the Ritual to end mankind."

"Phoenix has been getting pretty wild lately"

"If I can kill Phoenix I can gain infinite mana as well."

"You won't kill me Travis because I still have my hand wrapped around you."

"It's time I settle things with Medusa."

"Who will you save? Manuela or Karina?"

"Ohio has 5 obelisks in 5 different cities. There is no way we can take them down all at once."

"I'm here to pay back for what Travis did for us."

" **Dinothunder! Power Up!"**

"Makoto Fueki, I'm here to take my friend back!"

"I've created a new ring that is more powerful than Infinity."

"I can't believe Karina is dying..."

"I want my final moments to be the best I've ever had."

 **"Despair! Now!"**

"How do I fight something like this?"

"Everything you have worked for has been for nothing."

"If I'm going to stop Wiseman, I might have to give up my life."

"I'm putting everything I have into this one last spell."

The Masked Rider Wizard Book 3 Final: Ancient White. Chapter 1 Coming Soon.


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